In Personal Call To Department Of Interior Deputy Secretary Cason, Schumer Convinces Feds To Hold Off On Final Oneida Land Trust Decision Until Community Questions Are Answered

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In Personal Call To Department Of Interior Deputy Secretary Cason, Schumer Convinces Feds To Hold Off On Final Oneida Land Trust Decision Until Community Questions Are Answered

Following Up on Letter Sent Yesterday to Department of Interior, Schumer - In Personal Call with Associate Deputy Secretary Cason - Secures Promise that DOI Won't Make Final Decision on Oneida Land Trust Until Agency has Responded to Community Concerns Outlined in Letter

With the Fed's Final Decision on Putting 13,000 Acres of Land in Madison and Oneida Counties into a Tax-Exempt Federal Land Trust Pending, Local Communities Still Have Unanswered Questions and Fear Consequences to Local Tax Base, Jurisdictional Coordination and Unequal Developmen

Schumer Presses Feds to Deliver Land Trust Answers - in Plain English - on Taxes and Regulation, not More Technocratic and Legalistic Jargon

With the final decision on the Oneida Indian Nation's land-trust application set to be announced soon, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today secured a promise from Department of the Interior (DOI) Associate Deputy Secretary Jim Cason that the federal agency would hold off on making their final decision until the concerns of the affected communities - outlined by Schumer in a letter to the DOI sent yesterday - were addressed. In a personal phone call last night, Cason agreed to answer the Senator's letter--in straightforward, understandable language-- before announcing the agency's final conclusions.

"There is a lack of clarity on critical tax, regulation and coordination issues related to the land trust process that has created confusion and fear in many quarters," said Senator Schumer. "That's why it is urgent that the DOI put on the brakes and answer the community's concerns--in plain English, not in bureaucratic jargon or legalese."

Schumer sent a letter to Cason and DOI Secretary Dirk Kempthorne yesterday, urging the federal agency to defer taking land into trust and instead allow time for the Tribe, local communities and state to negotiate an agreement regarding the proposed trust land and other matters. Schumer also told DOI that if it will not defer making its decision, DOI should at least immediately address the concerns of the local communities affected by the land trust decision -- including lack of clarity on applicability of federal regulations on environmental and development issues -- and include crucial tax and financial provisions in its final decision to ensure the county's and town's local economies don't suffer.

Last night, in a phone call with Associate Deputy Secretary Cason, Schumer secured a promise that the Cason would respond to the Senator's concerns for the communities affected across Oneida and Madison counties before making his final call.

"When I spoke with Associate Deputy Secretary Cason last night, I convinced him to not jump the gun on this decision and take the time to answer the community concerns I outlined in my letter yesterday," said Schumer. "He agreed to do this, which is a promising sign. Most importantly, I stressed to him that what we need here are some practical answers. We don't need pages and pages of bureaucratic gobbledygook that skirts the real issues and leaves us all with more question marks. We need some real answers that help us get all the parties to remain at the table so we can forge an outcome that satisfies everyone and avoids many more rounds of endless litigation."

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 - a decision that has local residents and officials expressing serious concern over consequences to their community tax bases, jurisdictional cohesion, and local businesses.

Yesterday, in a personal letter to DOI Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, Schumer urged the federal agency to address immediately the financial and regulatory concerns of residents in Madison and Oneida counties, as well as take critical steps to mitigate some of the fiscal impacts this land-into-trust decision will have on communities across the area. Schumer urged the DOI to withhold a final decision until community concerns had been adequately addressed.

Certain communities across Oneida and Madison counties fear the financial consequences they would suffer if this much land was 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 its tax base. 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. 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.

Another major concern that has, thus far, not been sufficiently clarified 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.

Yesterday, in a letter to Cason and Secretary Kempthorne, Schumer specifically asked that the Tribe be required to pay back in full any back taxes still owed. He also asked that a compensation agreement be negotiated with the towns of Verona and Stockbridge and the City of Oneida, which are set to suffer the most fiscally if the deal goes through, as well as insisting that 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.

Last night, in a follow-up call to the Senator's letter, Associate Deputy Secretary Cason agreed to respond fully to the Senator's letter before moving forward with his decision.

"It would just be bull-headed of DOI to barrel forward with a decision without addressing the very justified concerns of our communities. I do believe there's a solution here that can make everyone happy, it's just a matter of getting all parties to the table and starting a dialogue," said Schumer.

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 13,000 acres go into trust. In contrast, the counties had asked for only 1,000 acres of the land to be put into trust. The DOI's Final Environmental Impact Study is due sometime soon, although many feel the federal agency has not done enough to address the concerns of residents in Oneida and Madison Counties. There is an especially glaring lack of clarify on payment of back-taxes, payment of taxes on non-trust land and the applicability of federal environmental and other regulatory regimes on trust land. The final EIS will include a Record of Decision (ROD), the official action which declares the agency's determination.

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