Oklahoma tribes meet with city to discuss dispute over sales tax

Tuesday, March 25, 2014  

Leaders of four tribes met with the city of Shawnee, Oklahoma, on Monday to discuss a dispute over sales taxes.

The meeting with the Absentee Shawnee Tribe, the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, the Kickapoo Tribe and the Sac and Fox Nation was closed to the public. It was held at the Citizen Potawatomi Nation's Cultural Heritage Center despite Mayor Wes Mainord's objection to the location.

CPN Chairman John Barrett said the meeting "did not go well," The Shawnee News-Star reported.

Mainord has asked the tribes to collect a 3 percent tax on the sale of goods to non-Indians He claims tribal-owned businesses have cost the city millions of dollars in tax revenue.

The tribes have asked the city for more data but Mainord has declined to provide the information right now. He has cited a U.S. Supreme Court decision from 1991 but it's not clear whether he can force the tribe's to collect the tax.

Get the Story:
Face-to-face: City of Shawnee, tribal officials discuss sales tax issue (The Shawnee News-Star 3/25)
Tribes, Shawnee officials meet about sales tax dispute (The Tulsa World 3/25)
Tribes, Shawnee Officials Still At Odds Over Sales Taxes (AP 3/25)
Shawnee, tribes fail to agree on sales tax (The Oklahoma Journal Record 3/24)

Citizen Potawatomi Nation accuses city of bullying on sales tax (3/20)
City won't provide sales tax information to Oklahoma tribes (3/17)
Oklahoma tribes might walk away from meeting over sales tax (3/13)
Oklahoma city to meet with tribes over request for sales taxes (02/28)
City cites Supreme Court ruling in push for sales tax from tribes (2/24)
Tribes seek more information about city's request for sales tax (02/19)
Citizen Potawatomi Nation plans to create separate community (2/18)
Citizen Potawatomi Nation questions city's taxation stance (2/6)
Oklahoma city wants tribes to pay taxes on non-Indian sales (2/5)