The California Court of Appeal has ruled that Angelina Mike, a Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians member, is obligated to pay state income tax on more than $345,000 she received from gaming operations at Spotlight 29 Casino.

 

The court, affirming the decision of San Diego County Superior Court Judge Richard Strauss, said Mike was living on another tribes' reservation in 2000 when she got her per capita distribution.

Had Mike been living on Twenty-Nine Palms' 240-acre section of land, the state of California would have been barred from collecting taxes on income derived from the tribe's reservation, the court ruled.

Mike's attorney, Richard Freeman, said the March 5 decision will be appealed.

"I think they're absolutely wrong,'' Freeman said. "I think the Supreme Court is going to be the tribunal that is going to have to decide this issue."

Freeman said the tax exemption should be valid, as Mike was living in "Indian Country,'' on Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indian land. It is in the midst of separate chunks of reservation property held in trust by the Twenty-Nine Palms Band, where Spotlight 29 Casino, its parking lot and sanitation plant sets, and a stretch with no utilities in the high desert

The Franchise Tax Board contended that the exemption applies only when the taxpayer lives on the tribal lands of his or her own tribe.

The Court of Appeal agreed.

"We are convinced there is a rational basis for treating Indians who have left their own tribe's reservation like all other taxpayers in California'' because, for most practical purposes, those Indians are on the same footing as non-Indians
who live on the reservation, the court decision said.