The mayor of Shawnee, Oklahoma, is holding back sales tax information from four tribes despite claims that their businesses are hurting revenues.

Mayor Wes Mainord wants the Absentee Shawnee Tribe, the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, the Kickapoo Tribe and the Sac and Fox Nation to collect a 3 percent tax on the sale of goods to non-Indians. But he says it's too early to share data about revenues.

“While the city recognizes that, to reach this goal, all parties will have to share information, the city believes it is premature at this time to exchange data," Mainord wrote in a letter to the tribes, The Native American Times reported. "We believe a more productive approach will be to discuss the types of information that will be necessary for all parties to review before reaching an agreement, and identify which party or entity is in possession of such information and responsible for providing the information.”

Mainord also agreed to meet with the tribes on March 24 but he's opposing the proposed location -- the Citizen Potawatomi Nation's Cultural Heritage Center.

Get the Story:
City balks at providing tax documents to tribes (The Native American Times 3/17)

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