County calls tax on Poarch Creek casinos 'non-negotiable'

Thursday, April 26, 2012  

The Poarch Creek Band of Indians will pay taxes on its casinos, a top official from Escambia County in Alabama insisted.

The tribe already pays $100,000 to the county. But officials say the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Carcieri v. Salazar has changed the situation.

“An agreement can be worked out, but they’re going to pay the same taxes everyone else pays, that’s non-negotiable,” David Stokes, the chairman of the county commission, told The Mobile Press-Register. “It’s the Poarch Creeks who are putting jobs at risk by their opposition to paying taxes like everybody else.”

The Carcieri decision restricts the land-into-trust process to tribes that were "under federal jurisdiction" in 1934. The Poarch Creeks didn't gaming federal recognition until 1984.

The decision means the tribe's casinos aren't on trust land, the county claims.

Get the Story:
Escambia County, Poarch Creeks in battle over property taxes (The Mobile Press-Register 4/25)

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