Cortez Masto and Murkowski introduce Senate bill to help tribal economies

(The Center Square) - U.S. Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, introduced a bill this week aimed at helping Native American communities economically.

The Tribal Tax and Investment Reform Act attempts to make sure tribal communities receive the same tax benefits and economic development tools as state and local governments.

This bill would update the tax-exempt debt rules to ensure that tribal governments are subject to the same rules as other state and local governments. In addition, TTIRA would modify rules to have tribal governments’ essential pension and employment benefits taxed in the same manner as those of other state governments.

The TTIRA also wants to create more business opportunities by establishing an annual $175 million tax credit for low-income Native American communities.

On top of this, TTIRA seeks to increase the “effectiveness” of low-income housing tax credits in tribal communities. According to the bill, this program would modify the definition of a difficult development area to include tribal communities “for the purposes of determining eligible basis.”

To help increase the hiring of Native Americans, this bill would also extend and update the Indian Employment Tax Credit, which provides employers with a credit for hiring tribal members or their spouses who work on or near a reservation. The TTIRA would increase the wage amount an employer can offset from $20,000 to $30,000.

Cortez Masto said tribes in Nevada and nationwide deserve access to the same tools state governments and local governments use so they can “strengthen their communities and support their local businesses and services like health, housing, and education.”

“Our bill makes commonsense updates to the tax code to ensure fairness, create more good-paying jobs and keep more money in Indian Country,” she added.

Murkowski explained the bill seeks to fix “unfair tax rules that limited economic growth” in tribal areas “for far too long.”

Rodney Butler, president of the Native American Finance Officers Association, called the TTIRA a “necessary and overdue effort to modernize the federal tax code in recognition of Tribal sovereignty.”

Butler urged Congress to “act swiftly” to pass this bill so Native American communities are “fully included in the nation’s tax and investment framework.”