Pawlenty opposes tribe’s request to move land off tax rolls
"MN Governor"01/12/2006
The land is in Shakopee and Prior Lake. The Mdewakanton Sioux Community wants to use it for housing, health-care and cultural needs
Anthony Lonetree,
Star Tribune
Last update: January 12, 2006 – 9:02 PM
Reaffirming stands taken by his predecessors, Gov. Tim Pawlenty said he opposes a request by the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community to move hundreds of acres of tribal land off the property-tax rolls and into trust.
But the state’s position, outlined in a letter last week to the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), comes a month after the tribe found a local ally—the city of Prior Lake—in what has been a decade-long quest to put lands it has acquired into tax-exempt status.
The tribe’s legal counsel, William Hardacker, said Thursday that it was encouraged that Pawlenty said the state would “not necessarily oppose” transferring “an appropriate amount of land” into trust for housing and governmental needs.
Still, that amount is less than the 760 acres in the tribe’s application. The tribe remains determined, Hardacker said, to have all of that land put by the BIA into trust.
In 1998, the BIA rejected a previous request, saying the tribe failed to show that the move was essential.
The issue has regional significance because much of the tribe’s land holdings are prime real estate, situated near not only the tribe’s own Mystic Lake Casino but also near major transportation routes in the heart of one of the nation’s fastest-growing counties.
If the tribe were to develop the property now, it would be subject to local zoning controls.
The current request involves four parcels in Shakopee and in Prior Lake. Unlike the prior application, which mentioned commercial-industrial uses, the tribe now says it plans to focus on housing, cultural and health-care needs.
In his letter, Pawlenty said the amount of land seemed excessive for the tribe’s stated purposes, raising concerns, he wrote, that the tribe still could develop some of it for commercial and industrial use. To lose regulatory authority over the land --and tax revenues, too—would mean “significant negative impacts for the county and local communities,” he wrote.
Said Hardacker: “The tribe needs the land for residential purposes. This land must last forever, and this tribe will be here forever.”
The city of Shakopee and Scott County continue to oppose the application. But in a surprising move, the Prior Lake City Council voted Dec. 5 to withdraw opposition to the part of the request involving land within its borders.
Prior Lake Mayor Jack Haugen said Thursday that he felt that the positions of the tribe and local governments had become too entrenched, and that it was best to find ways for both to win as opposed to creating an “I win, you lose” situation.
Pawlenty has made certain, however, that the BIA knows that some Prior Lake citizens don’t approve of the trust application. He included in his filing a letter from a local group opposing the request.