Counties ask Oneidas to re-enter negotiations
Apr. 9, 2000

By MARRECCA FIORE
Observer-Dispatch

SHERRILL — Oneida and Madison county officials said Saturday they still believe mediation is the best way to solve the Oneida Indian land- claim dispute.

They released a letter to Oneida Indian Nation Representative Raymond Halbritter asking that he continue negotiations.

But Madison County Board of Supervisors Chairman Rocco DiVeronica said the two counties are “prepared to go to court” should it be necessary.

The statements came during a news conference by officials of the two counties in response to statements made by Halbritter last week that residents should force their political leaders to accept the Oneidas’ “fair offer to settle the land-claim dispute.”

Talks on the dispute collapsed Tuesday after officials said the two counties rejected a $45 million cash offer, and the state would not back off from its demand for a 25 percent share of all “new gaming” at Turning Stone Casino.

Since then, DiVeronica said, settlement master Ronald Riccio has informed Judge Neal P. McCurn he wants out of the settlement talks. He had no further details.

Officials said they were still hopeful, though.

“We all want a long-term solution, and a negotiated settlement is the best way to lift the cloud and protect our communities and residents,” Oneida County Executive Ralph J. Eannace Jr. said.

Eannace said the tribe’s and the counties’ offers were “not that different.” He said, for example, Riccio recommended a 25,000-acre cap on land purchases and the Oneidas asked for 40,000 acres.

“Our negotiating team was willing to recommend an increase to 27,500,” Eannace and DiVeronica wrote in their letter to Halbritter.

The letter also says the Oneidas’ refusal to collect sales tax on their sales to non-Indian customers is “most perplexing.” Eannace said the counties are also looking for “price parity” between Indian and non-Indian businesses.

He said more than 200 Indian tribes in 16 states voluntarily collect sales tax for their respective states. The Oneidas’ offer to pay the counties $1 million a year for the next 20 years in lieu of sales tax is too low, Eannace said.

The two counties estimate sales tax generated from the Oneidas’ businesses would be at least $2 million annually.

He also defended the state’s insistence on receiving 25 percent of the Oneidas’ profits from any “new gaming” devices that were installed after their gaming compact was negotiated.

“It’s the same type of revenue Connecticut and other states receive,” Eannace said.

Connecticut has taken in more than $1 billion from the 25 percent of slot revenue it collects monthly from the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, owners of Foxwoods Resort Casino. The Mashantuckets also collect sales tax for the state.

Residents of the land-claim area who attended the news conference said they were not surprised to hear the talks collapsed.

“I kind of knew all along (they) would,” Dennis Mills said. “There’s too much greed ... and no one wants to work anything out.”

Around the corner from Sherrill City Court, where the news conference took place Saturday, residents armed with signs picketed in front of the Oneidas’ SavOn gas station and convenience store on Route 5.

It was there that resident Wally Glasgow said he wasn’t disappointed talks failed.

“When you stop and look at the whole picture, you have nothing to lose by going to court,” he said.