Schumer Announces Support For State Legal Challenge To Land-Trust Deal - BIA Decision Fails To Address Key Community Questions

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Schumer Announces Support For State Legal Challenge To Land-Trust Deal - BIA Decision Fails To Address Key Community Questions

NYS Filed Lawsuit Yesterday to Overturn an Administrative Decision by U.S. Secretary of Interior and Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs to Transfer 13,000 Acres of Land in Oneida and Madison Challenging the Decision Could Put a Hold for Several Years on Taking 13,000-plus Acres into Trust and Create a More Level Playing Field for Negotiations with Counties Schumer: Final Bureau of Indian Affairs Decision Failed To Adequately Address Severe Consequences to Local Tax Base, Payment of Back Taxes, Zoning Issues

U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today expressed his support for New York State's legal challenge to the U.S. Department of Interior's (DOI) decision to put 13,004 acres of land into a federal tax-exempt trust in Madison and Oneida Counties. Schumer is supportive of their legal action and expressed that it should address the concerns of the local communities affected by the land trust decision -- including payment of back taxes, jurisdictional confusion, payment for vital emergency and safety services, and lack of clarity on applicability of federal regulations on environmental and development issues. Schumer also supports including crucial tax and financial provisions to ensure the counties' and towns' local economies don't suffer.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) recommended this past February that 13,086 acres of the Tribe's land in Oneida and Madison counties be put into a tax-exempt federal trust. Two months ago, BIA issued its record of decision (ROD) announcing that it would take 13,004 acres into trust - a decision that has local residents and officials expressing serious concern over consequences to their tax base, jurisdictional cohesion, an unequal playing field for future development and impact on local businesses.

"I applaud the state's legal action to challenge the trust decision and believe that the challenge must address the mistakes of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Communities across Madison and Oneida have an understandable reason to be worried about what this land trust means for their local tax base, business and for the future economic development of the region," Schumer said. "The BIA's failure to effectively address the issues of back taxes and a variety of community concerns in the decision make a legal challenge unavoidable."

Following an Oneida Nation request in 2005 that 17,000 acres of land be put into a tax-exempt federal trust, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) issued a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) this past February recommending that 13,086 acres go into trust. In contrast, the counties had asked for only 1,000 acres of the land to be put into trust. Even though BIA has issued its final EIS (FEIS) and a Record of Decision taking 13,004 acres into trust, many feel the BIA has not done enough to address the concerns of residents in Oneida and Madison Counties. There is an especially glaring lack of clarity on payment of back taxes, payment of taxes on Tribal non-trust land and the applicability of federal environmental and other regulatory regimes on trust land.

Affected communities across both Oneida and Madison County fear the financial consequences they will suffer with this much land put into a tax-exempt federal trust. Members of the Tribe living on the trust land would not have to pay local property taxes, delivering a blow to the counties' and localities' tax base. The towns of Verona and Stockbridge and the City of Oneida are set to suffer the most, with Verona losing 61%, Stockbridge 14% and the City of Oneida over 9% of their respective tax bases. The counties also fear that the Nation will not be made to pay in full the back taxes it owes, which would deliver a further cut to their local tax base. In a letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne last month, Schumer asked that the DOI require, as a pre-condition for taking land into trust, that the Tribe negotiate and fulfill an independent compensation agreement with the towns of Verona and Stockbridge and the city of Oneida. Schumer noted that the Tribe should be required to pay back in full any property taxes still owed and that any infrastructure or wetland development be subject to the same standards as land not taken into trust, protecting environmental and development concerns across the region.

"After indicating at first that they would, the failure to address the issues of back taxes was a galling omission by the BIA," said Schumer. "The BIA's failure to effectively address a variety of community concerns in their decision, and the failure to create the incentives to negotiate a global settlement, made a legal challenge inevitable. This coming legal challenge will put the counties on a more level playing field for any future negotiations that may occur."

Another major concern that has, thus far, not been sufficiently addressed is the kind of federal regulations, if any, the Oneidas would be subject to on prospective trust land. Locals argue that the trust would give the Nation free-reign over land-use decisions, new development initiatives and environmental matters. With some of the proposed trust land located in wetlands areas, communities across Madison and Oneida counties fear the environmental consequences -- and potentially unfair development advantage -- of ambiguous federal oversight of the land.

Today, in personal phone calls to Madison County Executive John Becker and Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente, Schumer told them he will be supportive of their legal action and it should address the immediate concerns of the local community, as well as the lack of tax and financial provisions in the final decision that would protect businesses and residents across Madison and Oneida Counties. The current decision, which is based on a plan issued this past February by the BIA, does not provide adequate compensation for the potential losses these communities will suffer, Schumer noted.

Schumer has noted in the past that the situation facing Madison and Oneida counties is unique because the area this proposed trust land lies within is so heavily populated, making this situation differ sharply with other applications -- mostly in the West and Midwest -- where more rural land is taken into trust.

Schumer has also pushed for the Tribe and Counties to negotiate and sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) or service agreements regarding the parties' respective responsibilities and authorities over issues of public safety, including law enforcement, fire protection, and emergency medical services and observing standards of environmental safety and building codes commonly accepted as standard in municipal activities.

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