A federal court case out of California could result in the Poarch Band of Creek Indians paying taxes on land it owns in Escambia County, Alabama, including Wind Creek Casino, according to a lawsuit filed January 28 with the state Supreme Court. Tax Assessor Jim Hildreth notified the tribe he planned to conduct an audit “for the purpose of assessing all the real and personal property of the Poarch Band in Escambia County for escaped taxes for the years 2009 through 2013.”
The county has wanted to assess and tax the tribe using a 2009 U.S. Supreme Court case, Carcieri vs. Salazar, which declared the federal government could not take land into trust from tribes that received federal recognition after 1934. The Poarch Band was federally recognized in 1984 and its land was taken into trust in 1985. The Poarch Band said the Carcieri decision applies only to pending trust land applications, not those that already have taken place.
However, in the latest move, state Senator Bryan Taylor, representing Escambia County as a private attorney, cited a January 21 ruling from the U.S. Ninth Court of Appeals, Big Lagoon Rancheria vs. State of California, in which the judges ruled 2-1 that property at the heart of the case did not constitute “Indian land” because the California tribe in the case had not been federally recognized by 1934. Taylor wrote, “If the Poarch Band, like the Big Lagoon tribe, is not a tribe that was ‘under federal jurisdiction’ in 1934, then the tax assessor has a clear legal duty to assess the property for taxation, and this state’s courts must be open for the judicial enforcement of such assessments.”
One issue is that the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 2012 ruled that the Poarch Band land in Escambia County was federal-trust land The federal government also has filed a brief in support of the tribe, stating that the statute of limitations for arguing trust cases has run out.
