Attorneys: Court ruling doesn’t solve tribe liquor tax issue

PENDER, Neb. (AP) – The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that Pender is within the boundaries of the Omaha Indian Reservation doesn’t mean the tribe can begin collecting from local businesses a tribal tax on liquor sales, attorneys on both sides said.

On Tuesday the high court upheld lower court rulings favoring the tribe, saying that Congress did not diminish the Omaha Indian Reservation in 1882 when it allowed the Omaha Tribe to sell portions of the reservation to non-Indians.

The tribe passed an alcohol ordinance in 2006 requiring businesses that sell alcohol on the reservation to buy liquor licenses and collect a 10 percent sales tax on all alcohol sales. Owners of seven Pender establishments sued, saying they were not subject to the ordinance because Pender was not on the reservation, because 98 percent of the town was not Indian and because the tribe had not asserted any jurisdiction for more than 100 years.

The court ruling said the justices were expressing no view about “the tribe’s power to tax the retailers of Pender in light of the tribe’s century-long absence from the disputed lands.”

The tribe’s attorney general, Maurice Johnson, and Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson agreed that the ruling confirmed only that Pender is part of the reservation.

Johnson told the Omaha World-Herald that the tribe was not “rattling any sabers” and would “closely study what our options are and move forward.”

Peterson said in a news release that his office “does not contemplate taking additional legal action unless the tribe attempts to exercise future governing or taxing authority over the disputed area.” The state had entered the legal fray in an effort to affirm what it said was its longstanding jurisdiction over Pender.

An attorney for the Village of Pender, Gene Summerlin, said he suspects more litigation will arise before the liquor tax issue is settled.

Jacque Breitbarth, who owns One Stop in Pender, told the Lincoln Journal Star that she fears the ruling could force her to stop selling alcohol.

“It sure makes me feel like that’s not going to be profitable, probably,” Breitbarth said.