Officials mum ’ til vote’s done

Madison County Supervisors will make no public comments until after today’s vote on settlement with Oneida Indian Nation

WAMPSVILLE >> Madison County officials are reserving comment on the agreement recently forged between the state, Madison County and neighboring Oneida County and the Oneida Indian Na- tion until after the deal is finalized.

Tuesday morning the Madison County Native American Affairs Committee moved a resolution through its review to present to the full Board of Supervisors. The board has scheduled a special meeting for today at 10 a. m. to vote on the settlement.

The historic settlement is set to extinguish decades of litigation over property taxes and land disputes between the Nation and local and state governments and turn some of the Nation’s profits over to the state and counties. Leveraging exclusivity of potential bids for casino openings in Central New York, the agreement will require the Nation to provide 25 percent of its annual gambling profits to the state, a portion of which will be given to the counties.

The settlement also places a 25,000- acre cap on property that the Nation is able

FROM PAGE 1 to put into trust, in exchange for the annulment of all land litigation. Any land that surpasses that cap will not be considered part of the Nation’s sovereign immunity.

In an effort to nullify the Nation’s advantage over neighboring businesses, it will have to levy sales tax on all sales of cigarettes, fuel and other products and adhere to minimum pricing standards for cigarettes. The tax applied to those sales will be retained by the Nation as revenue to be dedicated to governmental programs similar to what the state and counties use that revenue for.

The agreement, announced last week, has been signed off on by the gover- nor and Oneida Nation Representative Ray Halbritter but still requires ratification by the State Legislature, Department of Interior, New York State Attorney General and Madison County. Oneida County ratified the agreement Tuesday night.

Madison County Administrator Mark Scimone said county officials will reserve further comment on the agreement until the board considers it for approval.

Meanwhile, the Madison County Conservative Party leadership voted to never indorse any incumbent supervisor who votes in favor of the pact.

Dispatch reporter Jolene Cleaver will be live- tweeting the meeting on Twitter beginning sometime after 10 a. m. using the @ DispatchCleaver handle and the # oneida hashtag.