WASHINGTON, D.C. (WKTV) - Republican Assemblyman David Townsend reacted to the agreement reached between Oneida County and the Oneida Indian Nation. Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente announced the plans at the county office building.

Statements from Assemblyman David Townsend:
“Today’s announcement that a deal has been struck between our local government and the Oneida Indian tribe should trouble every resident and taxpayer of Oneida County,” said David Townsend (R,WF-Sylvan Beach). “A series of closed-door meetings, free of public comment and input from the potentially thousands of homeowners who would be negatively impacted by a federal land-into-trust decision involving 13,004 acres in Oneida and Madison counties, is yet another black mark on the Oneida tribe’s long-standing record of tax evasion, secrecy, and grandstanding victimhood.

If Oneida County has a relationship with the Oneida tribe and its unaccountable leadership then surely it is an abusive one, where one side continues to take and take and is never expected to give back. To wit: the announcement today from the Oneida County executive’s office that the county will accept a payment of $55 million in back taxes. In truth, the figure is closer to half a billion dollars, according to a study commissioned by the University of Rochester’s Simon School of Business. The tribe will also be granted an additional 1,800 acres in Oneida County – land which will not be subject to local school taxes or any regulatory oversight after 2014. The decision also continues to allow the Oneidas to pay according to ‘silver covenant’ rules, effectively allowing the tribe to choose which taxes it likes and those it doesn’t. This is not a realistic plan for Oneida County’s overburdened taxpayers who will inevitably pay a higher share per household in lost property-tax revenue; it is an ala carte method of tax collection that encourages tax evasion and then punishes the rest of us.

I will demand that two criteria be met when this matter comes first before Oneida County Board of Legislators and then the New York State Legislature. First, that the governor and the state government demand a greater percentage of back taxes be paid by the Oneida tribe to local and state coffers. If an entity more than an estimated $500 million in arrears pays only 11 percent of its debt, then latitude should be granted to all businesses and individuals who wish to pro-rate their tax bill. Second, on the additional 1,800-acre land grab the Oneida tribe seeks, property taxes reflecting fair-market value of assessments have to be paid. The silver covenant agreements between New York State and Indian nations were never intended to be applied selectively to local property taxes. The formula drawn up by town assessors within Oneida County ought to determine the tribe’s property-tax rate, not an arcane provision written in the 1800s which has been used liberally in recent years to avoid paying full value on tribe property within our county.

To hand over thousands of acres of Oneida County land without even so much as a debate on the particulars of the deal is to surrender taxpayers’ rights and create a funding gap for local services which will lead to higher levies for every family in the 115th Assembly District.