OLYMPIA – Some House Republicans are criticizing agreements Gov. Chris Gregoire reached with two tribes allowing them to collect and keep 75 percent of the motor vehicle fuel tax from reservation sales.
The state quietly quit collecting its share of the tax at gas stations owned by the Squaxin Island tribe west of Olympia and the Swinomish tribe near La Conner after a federal judge barred state collection of fuel taxes on reservation gas stations late last year.
The agreements Gregoire reached with the Squaxin and Swinomish tribes require them to collect the full retail tax of 34 cents per gallon on their sales of gasoline and diesel motor fuels, and give the state 25 percent of tax proceeds from those sales.
In a statement distributed to the House Republican Organizing Committee, Rep. Bev Woods, a Republican from Poulsbo who helped pass a gas-tax increase last year, and House Minority Leader Richard DeBolt of Chehalis said Gregoire would be giving away $100 million to $500 million in gasoline-tax revenues if other tribes get into the act.
Tom Fitzsimmons, the Democratic governor’s chief of staff, said recently that the agreements would cost the state about $504,000 a year while saving close to $168,000 in tax receipts the state otherwise would not get.
Fitzsimmons also said no other tribes could enter into the agreements until lawmakers approve a process for doing so.
Woods said she doesn’t believe the governor has the authority to enter into compacts. “It certainly isn’t binding without it being in statute,” she said.
Scott Merriman of the governor’s Office of Financial Management defended the agreements, saying they are not compacts but settlements of lawsuits.
Last November, U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly ruled that the state didn’t have the right to collect state gas tax for any gas sold on reservations, regardless of whether the buyer was a tribal member.
Merriman said Gregoire plans to bring legislation to lawmakers in January that authorizes compacts and clarifies other questions raised by Zilly’s ruling, which the state has appealed.
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