What is a government for 103 lease purposes?
Generally, any state (including the District of Columbia), any political subdivision of a state, any territory of the United States, or any federally recognized Indian tribe3 could be the lessee under a 103 lease. The federal government and its agencies cannot be a lessee under a 103 lease. Usually, there is little difficulty in determining if a particular lessee qualifies as a government. Obvious examples include cities, towns, counties, and other municipalities and their various departments and agencies. The answer is not always obvious, however, when considering other types of entities created by statute for a special or limited purpose. Whether these public or quasi-public entities can enter into a 103 lease depends on whether the entity has sufficient attributes of a sovereign entity. What makes an entity a sovereign entity is that it has the powers to (a) tax, (b) exercise eminent domain, and (c) exercise police power (the power to make and enforce laws). The proposed lessee does
