Page:United States Reports 546.pdf/325

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546US1

114

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[08-22-08 15:19:53] PAGES PGT: OPIN

WAGNON v. PRAIRIE BAND POTAWATOMI NATION Opinion of the Court

“only cloud[s] ” our efforts to establish such standards. Blaze Constr., supra, at 37. Under the Nation’s view, how­ ever, any off-reservation tax imposed on the manufacture or sale of any good imported by the Nation or one of its mem­ bers would be subject to interest balancing. Such an expan­ sion of the application of the Bracker test is not supported by our cases. Nor is the Nation entitled to interest balancing by virtue of its claim that the Kansas motor fuel tax interferes with its own motor fuel tax. As an initial matter, this is ultimately a complaint about the downstream economic consequences of the Kansas tax. As the owner of the station, the Nation will keep every dollar it collects above its operating costs. Given that the Nation sells gas at prevailing market rates, its decision to impose a tax should have no effect on its net revenues from the operation of the station; it should not mat­ ter whether those revenues are labeled “profits” or “tax pro­ ceeds.” The Nation merely seeks to increase those reve­ nues by purchasing untaxed fuel. But the Nation cannot invalidate the Kansas tax by complaining about a decrease in revenues. See Colville, 447 U. S., at 156 (“Washington does not infringe the right of reservation Indians to ‘make their own laws and be ruled by them,’ Williams v. Lee, 358 U. S. 217, 220 (1959), merely because the result of imposing its taxes will be to deprive the Tribes of revenues which they currently are receiving”). Nor would our analysis change if we accorded legal significance to the Nation’s decision to label a portion of the station’s revenues as tax proceeds. See id., at 184, n. 9 (Rehnquist, J., concurring in part, concur­ ing in result in part, and dissenting in part) (“When two sovereigns have legitimate authority to tax the same trans­ action, exercise of that authority by one sovereign does not oust the jurisdiction of the other. If it were otherwise, we would not be obligated to pay federal as well as state taxes on our income or gasoline purchases. Economic burdens on