Oklahoma's governor emails 14 tribal leaders his offer to extend tobacco tax compacts

Gov. Kevin Stitt announced Thursday that he had emailed a series of offers to tribal leaders to renew expiring tobacco tax compacts.

The 14 letters are the latest move in a chess match between the governor and the legislature to determine the future of the deals, which bring in more than $50 million to state coffers every year.

While top lawmakers are trying to extend the compacts through 2024 on existing terms, Stitt is proposing changes. Specifically, the governor wants to make clear the agreements only apply to certain types of tribal lands, not to any land inside a reservation.

He also wants to strike a provision allowing either side to terminate the agreements, which call for the state and tribes to equally split tax revenues for tobacco products sold on tribal land.

“I extend this offer in good faith and remain steadfast in my belief that we must find common ground to move our state forward,” Stitt wrote in the identical letters sent Thursday. He added that if tribal officials accept the terms, “my team will expeditiously prepare and send to you a signed compact extension.”

The extensions would last through December 2024, he said.

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Attempt to override Stitt's veto of tribal compacts failed by one vote

Stitt has focused on narrowing the compact terms in light of courts’ recognizing that eight tribal reservations are still intact and cover much of eastern Oklahoma.

The offers are landing in tribal leaders’ inboxes four days after the Senate failed to advance a bill to renew the compacts without any changes. Although the measure passed in May, the governor vetoed it, leaving lawmakers to try to override it. That effort stalled Monday in the Senate when it failed by one vote. Senate leader Greg Treat said lawmakers could reconvene in July to try again.

Stitt has said the legislature should allow him to negotiate the compacts.

A blanket offer letter is not a good faith way to negotiate with tribal governments that have equal footing, said Valerie Devol, an Edmond tax attorney who represents several tribes in Oklahoma. No one would accept a deal without seeing the exact terms in writing, she said.

“This isn’t a negotiation,” she said. “It’s not respectful. It’s not government-to-government. It’s just ‘my way or the highway.’”

The offer letters were limited to tribes whose compacts are expiring at the end of the year. Several state-tribal compacts have already expired. Those deals would be revived under the legislative proposal.

Stitt announced the offers soon after he tweeted a meme criticizing a federal appeals court decision that tribal leaders viewed as a win. The court ruled that Tulsa cannot prosecute Native Americans for violations that occur on tribal reservations encompassing the city. Stitt denounced Wednesday’s ruling as unfair.

The meme featured a road sign with two separate speed limits: 75 mph and 100 mph. The latter one was labeled “Tribal speed limit.”

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Leaders of the Muscogee and Cherokee nations, whose reservations cover parts of Tulsa, have pointed out that their laws largely mirror state laws, and long-standing agreements mean Tulsa Police can enforce speed limits regardless of whether someone is a tribal citizen.

Devol said it is difficult to consider the governor’s compact offers sincere given his social media posts. “This is just his end run around the legislature,” she said. “This is not how you negotiate in good faith.”

Many tribal leaders had not yet had a chance to review the letters Thursday afternoon because they are at a large self-governance conference in Tulsa.

The tribes contacted include the Absentee Shawnee, Citizen Potawatomi, Comanche, Eastern Shawnee, Iowa, Miami, Osage, Ottawa, Pawnee, Quapaw, Wyandotte, Tonkawa and Wyandotte nations, as well as the Thlopthlocco Tribal Town and the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes.

The governor has said he previously made similar offers to the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations. The state’s compacts with each expire Dec. 31.

Molly Young covers Indigenous affairs. Reach her at mollyyoung@gannett.com or 405-347-3534.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Gov. Stitt sends tobacco tax compacts renewal offer to tribal leaders