INDIAN TOWNSHIP – The Passamaquoddy Joint Tribal Council on Monday approved a tax agreement between the tribe and an Oklahoma-based liquefied natural gas developer. The vote was 9-2 .

The council’s approval came on the heels of a vote at Indian Township last week. There, tribal members by a vote of 224-10 threw their support behind Quoddy Bay LNG to build a liquefied natural gas facility at its sister reservation at Pleasant Point. The proposed project is currently being reviewed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Although the question on the ballot asked only if Indian Township wished to share in the revenues, meetings and handouts prior to the vote explained the tax agreement.

“There were several documents circulated by the tribal government which explained the project and the tax agreement,” Quoddy Bay tribal relations director and Passamaquoddy tribal member Fred Moore said Tuesday. “In one of the community advisories, it was stated quite clearly that voting yes would authorize the Indian Township Tribal government to enter into a tax agreement and support of Pleasant Point in development of the project.”

Following the Indian Township vote, the Passamaquoddy Tribe and Quoddy Bay LNG signed the agreement which would lower the tribe’s construction tax from 3 percent to 1 percent and eliminate all other personal and property taxes for the LNG project on Passamaquoddy land in exchange for substantial lease payments, the company said in a prepared statement.

The agreement now allows for the payment to be split between the two reservations in accordance with the respective populations.

Contacted Tuesday, Chief Rick Doyle of the Pleasant Point Reservation said the joint tribal council passed the agreement Monday night and he signed it. He did not elaborate, although in the past he has raised questions about whether the vote meant that Indian Township would share in any liability connected with the project. The agreement also was signed by Chief Billy Nicholas of Indian Township and Brian Smith, project manager for Quoddy Bay.

“While we have had the support of the Pleasant Point Reservation for years, we’re thrilled that the Passamaquoddy Tribe as a whole is now behind the Quoddy Bay LNG development,” Smith said in the release. “We are happily wiring almost half a million dollars in lease payments that have been accruing over the past year.”

Nicholas said he was pleased to be working on the project with Quoddy Bay and Pleasant Point. “I look forward to moving forward on the project,” he said.

The tax agreement, as it is called, originated in the Ground Lease Agreement that Pleasant Point and Quoddy Bay entered into. Although Quoddy Bay and Pleasant Point agreed upon the ground lease, the tax agreement had to be voted on by both reservations.

“The tax agreement is a symbol of our combined efforts,” Pleasant Point tribal Councilor Ed Bassett said. “I’m also very pleased that we are working with Indian Township and the tribe is united on this project.”

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.

“Originally, $16 million could have been paid to the tribe,” Smith said, “but under the ground lease agreement that $16 million was reduced to $12 million because the tanks are not located on Pleasant Point soil.” If the project goes through, the tanks are to be built on land in neighboring Perry. An underground cryogenic pipeline would connect the two.

More than 1,500 tribal members live on the Passamaquoddy tribe’s reservations at Indian Township near Princeton and Pleasant Point near Eastport. The two chiefs, lieutenant governors and councilors sit on the Joint Tribal Council.

“The willingness by the Pleasant Point Reservation to include its sister reservation in the benefits of this project was the key to this agreement,” Moore said. “My goal with this project has always been to benefit both reservations, and with the signing of the tax agreement, I think that goal has finally been reached.”