Jay Daniels: States still trying to take Indian land and money

Desmond Tutu once said “When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said 'Let us pray.' We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.”

The same could be said today slightly modified to say “they took our land, and when we tried to survive on what was left, and began to profit in our economic developments, they went after our resources using compact agreements and taxation.

Recently, the King County Superior Court Judge Mary Roberts ruled in favor of the city of Snoqualmie against the Washington Department of Revenue and repealed ESHB 1287 on March 4, 2015. The bill would have given property tax exemptions to tribes on non-reservation lands purchased before March 1, 2014, and subsequently shifted the tax burden to residents. At issue before the Court was “does the Payment in Lieu of tax, or PILT, violate the uniformity requirements in Article VII of the Washington Constitution” because it is not imposed at an equal tax rate and does not produce equality in valuing the property taxed.