Tag: tribe loans

04
Feb

Tribe Owned Businesses in Downtown USA?

So… U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote a letter January 28, 2013 to The Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs asking the agency to reject the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma’s land-into-trust application. The Oklahoma-based tribe bought 229 acres of vacant land in Cayuga County, NY for $738,554 in 2002. The Bureau rejected their plans for a casino in 2006 and 2008. The agency said, “the tribe had not demonstrated the casino plan would provide an economic benefit to the tribe’s members in Oklahoma.” Strange…

What’s the implication for other tribally owned businesses? What if this “geographically remote,” federally recognized  tribe were to build a call center in downtown NY coupled with a technology center to offer small dollar loans exceeding New York’s usury rates? Certainly this enterprise would employ both tribe and local residents thus benefiting both parties economically. How will local tax payers, officials and state attorney’s general respond as this scenario is repeated in cities throughout the USA?

According to Glenn Coin | gcoin@syracuse.com , if the trust application is approved this time, the land will be taken off the tax rolls, costing local taxing entities approximately $9,541 in revenues, based on 2012 real property records. What about the jobs that would be created for employees of the call center and all the construction and materials employment resulting from this construction? Any thought given to the impact on local businesses from restaurants to equipment suppliers?

Read more here and here.

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