INDIAN TOWNSHIP – Voters Tuesday night overwhelmingly approved a tax agreement between the Passamaquoddy Tribe and an Oklahoma-based liquefied natural gas developer.

The 224-10 vote means that Quoddy Bay LNG now has the full backing of the Passamaquoddy from both tribal reservations to build an LNG facility at Pleasant Point.

Indian Township Chief Billy Nicholas said after the vote that this was a major step forward for the two reservations. The tribe has a reservation at Indian Township near Princeton and another at Pleasant Point near Eastport.

“There are a lot of financial decisions that people need to be involved with when it comes to moving forward with the tribe,” he said. “Good or bad, it is always good progress when the people in your communities are involved.”

He said that before the vote information had been made available to voters and a workshop had been held.

Plans call for Quoddy Bay LNG to build a multimillion-dollar liquefied natural gas facility on Passamaquoddy tribal land at Pleasant Point. An underwater pipe across Half Moon Cove near Route 190 would connect the pier at Split Rock with a tank farm in nearby Perry.

Tribal leaders from the Pleasant Point reservation signed a lease agreement with Quoddy Bay two years ago calling for the company to pay the tribe about $12 million annually depending on the average annual amount of liquefied natural gas coming in. The Bureau of Indian Affairs approved the lease agreement in June 2005.

Now that Indian Township voters have spoken, the measure must go before the joint tribal council made up of officials from both reservations for final approval.

Indian Township officials previously had objected to the “Project Coordination and Tax Agreement” part of the lease contract with Quoddy Bay LNG because that reservation was not initially included. The LNG project, however, would affect both reservations since the land the facility would be built on belonged to the whole tribe.

For nearly a year, officials from the two reservations argued over how to resolve the issue.

Then last September, elections were held and Nicholas, who was newly elected tribal chief at Indian Township, vowed to move forward with a more open and inclusive tribal government. In addition, newly elected officials at Pleasant Point agreed to share profits from the deal, 60-40 with its sister community.

The referendum question put forward by Nicholas and approved by Indian Township voters Tuesday would exempt the developer from real estate and personal property taxes. It also would allow the Pleasant Point reservation to reduce the Tribal Employment Rights Ordinance tax it can impose on a construction project from 3 percent to 1 percent.

More than 1,500 tribal members live on the Passamaquoddy tribe’s reservations at Indian Township near Princeton and Pleasant Point near Eastport.

Project Manager Brian Smith of Quoddy Bay LNG said he was thrilled.

“This is wonderful news, I am pleased to see such overwhelming support,” he said. “We are happy that we have the other reservation on board as well so the entire Passamaquoddy Tribe is represented.”

The project continued to move through the federal licensing process even though Indian Township had not signed off on the project coordination and tax agreement that the company needed.

But Pleasant Point tribal Chief Rick Doyle said Tuesday night he still has concerns. Now that Indian Township is sharing in the profits, does that mean it also will share in the liability. He said he planned to raise that question at the next joint tribal council meeting. No date for that meeting has been set.

“They voted on something that was not presented to them in any detail,” Doyle said. “Now the Joint Council will have to discuss some of those details.”

The vote, he said, raises questions. “What is Indian Township’s role? Are they saying they are subject to the land lease or do they just get money and let us suffer the consequences of the land lease,” he said. “Pleasant Point is taking all the risks.”

Once the Joint Tribal Council approves the Project Coordination and Tax Agreement as voted on by Indian Township, Quoddy Bay LNG plans to pay Pleasant Point what they owe.

“The good news, the lease payments that have been accruing to the tribe will be paid in short order as soon as the tax agreement is signed by the Joint Tribal Council,” Smith said. The company owes the tribe about $500,000.

Former Tribal State Representative Fred Moore, who first introduced the LNG concept to the Pleasant Point reservation, said Tuesday he too was pleased with the vote.

“It has always been my intention to have the entire tribe benefit from the project,” he said. Moore now serves as the tribal relations director for Quoddy Bay LNG.

Moore said now that Indian Township has spoken, there will be no further referendum votes on the project.