Power Plant on Tribal Land Asks Supreme Court for Tax Exemption

A private energy company asked the US Supreme Court to review a case on whether the power plant it owns on tribal land is exempt from local property taxes.

The Arizona Supreme Court mistakenly held that federal law doesn’t expressly preempt local and state property taxes on property located in tribal land if the owners aren’t Indian, South Point Energy Center LLC’s petition for writ of certiorari said. The state high court’s reasoning, that the taxes are imposed on land improvements rather than the land itself, is flawed because the improvements become part of the land, South Point said.

Arizona’s ...