Each Thursday, we put one of our local newsmakers On The Spot.

This week: Assemblyman Brian Kolb

You represent many landowners living in Indian land claim areas. How do you believe the Bureau of Indian Affairs should rule on the Cayuga Nation's land-in-trust application, and why?

The Bureau of Indian Affairs should and must reject the Cayuga Nation's land-trust application.

This is another in a series of misguided steps that negatively impact the lives of law-abiding property owners and taxpayers throughout our region and state.

The intent of placing land into trust, by the federal government, was to restore tribes' land lost during the Allotment Act of 1887.

New York Indian tribes did not lose land due to allotment; they sold their land to the state of New York, so placing land in trust now would be outside the

legislative intent of the Indian Reorganization Act.

According to the “Universal Glossary of Land Use Terms and Phrases,” A land trust is a not-for-profit organization, private in nature, organized to preserve and protect the natural and man-made environment by, among other techniques, creating conservation easements that restrict the use of real property.

As anyone in our area knows, the Cayuga Nation is certainly making a profit on their gas stations, campground, car wash and bingo halls with a total disregard for local

land-use regulations and guidelines.

What message does this send to those who obey our laws and pay their taxes?

In addition, the whole idea of national trust was not designed for densely populated areas, but rather for the

western part of the United States.

This application for designation is totally without merit

in Cayuga and Seneca counties.

We cannot allow this region to be “checker-boarded” on political or judicial whims.

Imagine owning a business across the street from a business operated by the Cayuga Nation, who refuses to collect sales tax on gasoline or other products.

Not only does the nation not collect the sales tax, but it undercuts market prices to gain an unfair advantage over local businesses.

This practice is simply not fair to any of our local businesses and must not be allowed to continue.

We must demand that the Bureau of Indian Affair immediately reject the request by the Cayuga Nation to place their holdings in a land-trust.

There is not a legal, constitutional or rational justification to allow this petition to move forward.