During today's American Indian Caucus at NN10, our fearless leader (and warrior sister) navajo mentioned an issue new to most of us: Refunds of state income taxes that are due Native veterans. New NAN member Abeartracks diaried this subject a few days ago; follow me over the jump for additional information.
Native American Netroots
An ongoing series sponsored by the Native American Netroots team focusing on the current issues faced by American Indian Tribes and current solutions to those issues.
On this important issue, I'm learning as I go; I wasn't even aware of it until a few days ago. Abeartracks, who is himself a veteran, has been working on this for some time. As is often the case with Indian issues, he's found virtually no audience for his concerns - until now. He's given me permission to cite his NAN diary here, so please, follow along and learn with the rest of us - and then contact your congressional reps and state legislators to help rectify this.
In 1940, Congress passed a law, the Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act, that provides certain financial protections for members of the nation's armed forces. The law has since been amended, and is now known as the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. Section 511(e) provides:
(e) FEDERAL INDIAN RESERVATIONS.—An Indian servicemember
whose legal residence or domicile is a Federal Indian reservation
shall be taxed by the laws applicable to Federal Indian reservations
and not the State where the reservation is located.
States not only deducted taxes in violation of this section, but appear to have continued to do so up until at least 2001.
In 2004, citing supporting court, administrative, and DOJ advisory opinions, as well as a formal change in DoD policy, Tom Udall introduced HR 5275, which would have provided for repayments to these vets. Needless to say, the bill nowhere. It also appears that the new DoD policy contains a statute of limitations that may prevent recovery for many vets.
For once, New Mexico seems to be leading the way toward reform: In 2009, NM state senator Lynda Lovejoy (who is Navajo) introduced SB 541, to provide for such repayment. It eventually passed, with some alterations, and was signed into law at the end of the 2009 regular legislative session. It appears, however, that questions are likely to arise about how the repayment monies are to be funded, and whether the state legislation will face preemption or other conflicts if federal legislation is passed providing for such repayment to our Native veterans. More information about the fund, and how to apply, is available here.
Interestingly, while Tom Udall could not get Congress to do the right thing by our Native vets six years ago, it appears that the government was indeed willing to do [part of] the right thing by Filipino veterans who fought during WWII. Filipino soldiers fighting on behalf of the U.S. did not receive the full benefits that their American counterparts did; while the deal will not make these vets whole, and is certainly less than what it should have been, the federal government has at least entered into an agreement with Filipino vets to provide some reimbursement for that difference in benefits.
Our Native veterans are still waiting.