Tribe Continues to Fight Slot Machine Tax 

The Mashantucket Pequot Tribe is fighting to get their case moved to federal court as they argue that federal law prohibits the taxing of property on Indian reservations. They argue that even though the property is slot machines, they are still on the reservation and cannot be taxed. The Town of Ledyard disagrees, and the town and the state are fighting to keep it on a local level.  They say that the taxes are against the Atlantic City Coin and Slot Service for the slot machines and are not levied against the Indians, and therefore federal laws do not apply.

The tribe's attorneys, Shaun Sullivan and Erika Amarante, of the New Haven law firm Wiggin and Dana, quoted federal law to support their argument: “The United States shall have original jurisdiction of all civil actions, brought by any Indian tribe or band with a governing body duly recognized by the Secretary of the Interior, wherein the matter in controversy arises under the Constitution, laws or treaties of the United States.”

The town says they are not taxing the tribe on the slot machines; they are taxing the company that is leasing them to the tribe. The tribe argues that they have to pay any tax that is levied on the slot machines as the price gets passed on to them through the contract. The federal government recognizes that the tribes have the right to govern themselves, and will normally side with them on matters pertaining to taxation and regulation. The tribe wants the government to step in and remove the taxation from the slot machines, and if it goes to the federal government there is a good chance that they will.

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