High court won’t hear Indian tax case appeal

Mashantucket member owes the state $200,000

By Scott Ritter
The Day

The U.S. Supreme Court turned away an appeal from a Mashantucket Pequot tribal member who said she should not be forced to pay state taxes on money she earned as a tribal councilor in the late 1990s.

Jo-Ann Dark Eyes had argued that she was not liable for thousands of dollars in taxes because she lived in “Indian Country” and earned her income on the reservation. The state Supreme Court disagreed in January, and the nation's top court, acting without comment Monday, declined to review the Connecticut ruling.

Dark Eyes owes the state about $200,000 in taxes and interest for the years 1996, 1997 and 1998, state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in July. Her home at 59 Coachman Pike was within the 2,200 acres that Congress set aside for the tribe in 1983, but the property wasn't taken into trust by the federal government until Aug. 25, 1998.

Native Americans are generally exempt from state income taxes if they belong to a federally recognized tribe, derive income solely from the reservation and live in “Indian Country.”

At issue in Dark Eyes' appeal was whether her home became Indian Country when the tribe purchased the property in 1993. The state Department of Revenue Services maintained that the property didn't become Indian Country until it was formally taken into trust by the Department of the Interior five years later.

Dark Eyes couldn't be reached for comment. Her attorney, Barbara A. Frederick, of Hartford, declined to comment.

Blumenthal this summer urged the high court to reject Dark Eyes' appeal. He noted that before the land was taken into trust, the tribe had never claimed it was exempt from taxation as Indian Country. The Mashantuckets paid property taxes on it to the Town of Ledyard.

“This decision — indeed, the final ruling –– upholds vital state rights to taxation,” Blumenthal said in a statement Monday. “The state respects the principles of sovereignty on the reservation, but must impose its taxing authority over those living off the reservation. My office will continue to work with the Department of Revenue Services in their effort to collect unpaid taxes.”