What was once a sweeping tribal sovereignty bill now looks like a tax break for Wabanaki people.

Lawmakers on Thursday unveiled a rewrite of LD 785, which would have recognized the sovereignty of Wabanaki Nations. The amended version would instead enshrine and expand income and sales tax exemptions for tribal members and grant the Mi’kmaq Nation a non-voting representative in the State House.

This was foreshadowed last month, when Chief William Nicholas Sr. of the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Motahkomikuk (Indian Township) requested these tax breaks during his testimony on the legislation.

But the bill didn’t get far Thursday after its sponsor, Sen. Rachel Talbot Ross, a Portland Democrat, asked that the judiciary committee halt its work because representatives of some tribal nations were not present and some “have chosen not to be here.”

The new language was proposed by the office of Gov. Janet Mills, Talbot Ross said, and produced through conversations with some tribal leaders.

Originally, the bill would have made federal Indian law broadly applicable to the Penobscot Nation, the Passamaquoddy Tribe, the Mi’kmaq Nation and the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians. It would also have implemented recommendations made in 2020 by a task force of lawmakers and tribal leaders, including repealing restrictions on tribal land acquisition and expanding tribal authority over hunting and fishing on their lands.

But that language was unlikely to clear Mills’ desk, stakeholders acknowledged, given the governor’s preference for incremental amendments to the laws applicable to Wabanki Nations.

The new version of the bill would exempt tribal members who work for their government from income tax, regardless of whether they live on a reservation; it would exempt new manufactured homes on tribal lands from sales tax; and it would expand a sales tax exemption from tribal trust land (which the federal government legally owns) to certain fee lands, which the tribes own outright.

Passamaquoddy Tribal Rep. Aaron Dana, who sits on the judiciary committee, advised colleagues to hold off on deliberations until all four tribes were in consensus.

The Mi’kmaq Nation told lawmakers it supported the new language, lawmakers said Thursday.

Osihkiyol “Zeke” Crofton-Macdonald, tribal ambassador for the Maliseets, was present Thursday and said in an interview that the tribe is broadly in support of the amendment but that the scheduling of the work session had not left enough time for final review.

The Penobscot Nation did not have a representative present Thursday and did not respond to requests for comment.

Passamaquoddy leaders in particular have pushed to secure economic wins this legislative session as tribal governments look beyond 2026 in the hope of securing sovereignty recognition under the next governor.

Most significantly, Mills allowed a bill giving tribes the exclusive right to operate internet gaming to become law without her signature earlier this year.

The Wabanaki Alliance, a coalition that represents all four nations, has not formally taken a stance on the amendment yet. Maulian Bryan, the alliance’s executive director, said economic impacts of the amendment are good for tribal members.

“Whether or not this is an appropriate amendment to a bill about sovereignty is something for the tribes to consider,” she said.

The bill is scheduled for another work session in Augusta on Tuesday.

Reuben M. Schafir is a Report for America corps member who writes about Indigenous communities for the Portland Press Herald.