Here’s hopes Tribe, Watson find mutually beneficial accord

ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” article. It is an editorial by the editor.

The news last month about the Gun Lake Tribe of Potowatimis buying a parcel of land in Watson Township prompted two reactions from me:

• I am somewhat concerned that the Tribe now is making its third purchase of land that likely will take it off the local property tax rolls.
• I was struck by the very different response of Watson Township officials, as opposed to their counterparts in Hopkins Township.

The Tribe purchased the 20-acre parcel of land in Watson Township from owner Richard Funk. The site is located on the southwest corner of the intersection of 124^th Avenue and 20^th Street, just south of the line with Hopkins Township. Its State Equalized Valuation (SEV) has been estimated at $156,000.

The Jijak Foundation camp, owned by the Tribe and tax exempt, is just a couple of miles down the road north on 20^th in Hopkins Township.

There is no word yet as to whether the Tribe intends to take the Watson land into trust and off the tax rolls, like it has indicated for the former Nowak property, near the corner of 129^th Avenue and 12^th Street. The former Nowak property, zoned commercial, has been approved for being taken into a trust and the Hopkins Township Board hired a Lansing attorney last May to oppose the land being taken off the tax rolls and to protest the manner in which local revenue sharing payments are made.

But Watson Township Supervisor Kevin Travis made it clear last month that Watson doesn’t want any controversy and officials instead would like to negotiate some kind of tax sharing arrangement, in stark contrast to the Hopkins Township Board’s insistence that the Tribe “pay taxes like everybody else.”

The Hopkins board has spent more than $15,000 on a high-powered attorney to represent its interests, despite the fact the township now receives about $38,000 annually from the Tribe in a revenue sharing compact. Watson right now doesn’t receive a penny from any such arrangement.

It remains to be seen how the Watson situation plays out, but the spirit of cooperation, woefully lacking from Hopkins, is welcome in an age fraught with too much confrontation and conflict.

To be sure, The Tribe several years ago purchased the Jijak Camp and had it taken into a trust as a non-profit entity. It had been non-profit before then because it was owned by Mel Trotter Ministries. The Tribe paid a year’s worth of taxes in the first year after its purchase, but the land became tax free after the trust request was granted.

Now that the Nowak property has been taken into a trust with the government’s blessing, it seems to be a losing battle to contest it any further, simply a waste of taxpayers’ money.

I urge the Tribe to be fair and even generous in dealing with a Watson Township Board that doesn’t seem to want any trouble or unpleasantness.