Like state and local governments, tribal governments are reliant on federal funding but have much deeper unmet needs. State taxes create a poverty trap for Indian communities because the states do not provide equitable services. The legislation is promoted by cigarette and motor fuel retailers who want to eliminate even the tiny amount of competition from Indian retailers by making them pay taxes twice. This increasing pressure on trust lands stems from a lack of understanding of the 20 th Century U.S. policies that removed 90 million acres of tribal reservation lands without compensation. Tribal leaders would urge Congress to recognize the legitimacy of these goals and insist that the Dept. of Interior protect the imperative of restoring tribal land bases.
Tribal governments use their revenues to provide basic governmental services to Indian communities.
A federal tax would devastate these efforts at self-reliance and create a greater burden on limited federal funding. Preserve Tribal Government Gaming - Like state lotteries, tribal government gaming provides critical government revenues. Nevertheless, efforts continue to put a rider on the FY 1999 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill to prevent the Secretary of Interior from carrying out his statutory responsibilities to publish the Class III gaming procedure regulations. Tribal leaders are also very concerned that the National Gambling Impact Study Commission has done little to actually study tribal gaming and seems poised to issue a report that is based on little more than the politicized preconceptions that the Commissioners brought to their efforts. The continuing delay in enforcing this most basic and vital right has drawn outrage from Alaska's tribal governments.