Idaho Tribes: Tell Counties Not To Tax Indian Land - Spokane, North Idaho News & Weather KHQ.com

Idaho Tribes: Tell Counties Not To Tax Indian Land

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BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Idaho tribes want the Legislature to tell counties to quit taxing tribal government land on the state's reservations.
    
Helo Hancock, a lobbyist for the Coeur d'Alene Tribe in northern Idaho, told the House Revenue and Taxation Committee Monday the issue first arose in 2006.
    
Then, Idaho tribes received a "flurry of assessments" on land that had once been homesteaded, but later re-acquired by tribal governments.
    
Hancock says land owned by tribal governments should be treated the same way as county-, state- and federal land and exempted from property taxes.
    
He says the Coeur d'Alene Tribe has failed to work out a solution with Kootenai and Benewah counties, so far, so it wants legislators to intervene.
    
The total at stake is about $303,000 in assessments annually, for all five Idaho tribes.

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