BROWN COUNTY, WI (WTAQ) – A new sales tax for retailers operating on land owned by the Oneida Nation may be coming.
The idea was included on the agenda for the tribe’s semi-annual General Tribal Council meeting.
According to Brown County land records, Walmart, Sam’s Club, Festival Foods and Home Depot are among major retailers who could be forced to add a new sales tax on top of Wisconsin’s 5 percent sales tax.
“This is very, very early in the game,” tribal spokesperson Bobbi Webster told FOX 11.
According to tribal documents, last July, tribal members voted on a referendum whether the tribe should supplant the state’s 5 percent sales tax on tribal trust land. Tribal members voted 359 to 133 in favor of the tax.
The money would be dedicated to a trust fund for ‘PerCapita distribution.’
“An interested tribal member had an initiative in his mind or her mind to go forth and ask the question,” said Webster. “So they asked for it to be put on a referendum and they have the right to put the questions out as referendums.”
Tribe documents show a tribal attorney wrote the tribe has the authority to impose a sales tax on non-Indian companies that operate retail businesses on the Tribe’s trust lands. However, the attorney clarified the tax would have to be in addition to the state’s tax.
The attorney also wrote those businesses would be placed at a competitive disadvantage to companies whose businesses are not located on tribal trust lands.
The attorney wrote the businesses would have the incentive to challenge the validity of the Tribe’s sales tax, and may seek to terminate their leases.
“I think the General Tribal Council would want more information,” said Webster. “They would want to know what is the impact, what would you forecast, the impact financially, socially, business development.”
There is no word on how much the tax could be. Webster says it’s too early in the process for that answer.
Before the meeting Wednesday, a tribal member told FOX 11 members were asked not to discuss the sales tax issue.
