Tribe seeks to have Lincoln property removed from tax rolls

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Nebraska officials are fighting the Ponca Tribe’s efforts to have a building and land it owns in Lincoln removed from property tax rolls.

The tribe has submitted a request to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs to have the property at 2756 O St. put into the federal trust, the Lincoln Journal Star reported Saturday. Federally-recognized tribes have the ability to request land they own be designated federal land.

The property is assessed at $227,700. Ponca Tribe Chairman Larry Wright Jr. said the building currently serves as the tribe’s economic development office.

In an Aug. 11 letter to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson and Gov. Pete Ricketts expressed opposition to the tribe’s request, arguing that the Ponca Restoration Act of 1990 prohibits the tribe from establishing a reservation and that designating the property as on-reservation land would violate the federal act.

Peterson and Ricketts said the property should instead be designated as off-reservation land.

In 1999, the tribe got another building in owns in Lincoln put into federal trust, and the property is now considered off-reservation land, a status that prevents the city and state from enforcing many laws on the property.

The tribe has an agreement with the city that requires the tribe to abide by city building and zoning codes and to provide the city authority to enforce misdemeanor violations on the property. The tribe also has an agreement with the city to provide fire, police and emergency coverage to the property.

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Information from: Lincoln Journal Star, http://www.journalstar.com