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Editorial: Paterson should sign law to tax cigarette sales by Indian tribes
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
New York state needs all the money it can get these days, including as much as $400 million a year in added cigarette tax revenue that would be generated if only Indian reservations were no longer able to sell cigarettes to non-tribal members tax-free. The state Legislature has passed yet another bill aimed at enforcing this long-flouted law which would likely force an unpleasant confrontation with the state’s Indian tribes, but Gov. David Paterson hasn’t yet decided whether to sign it. He should. The measure would require tobacco wholesalers to swear that they won’t sell cigarettes to any retailers that don’t bear legal state tax stamps. The stamp requires the retailer to collect the state tax of $2.75 per pack, unless the buyer is a tribal member. The tribes don’t want to get involved collecting taxes for the state, but that’s somewhat of a moot point: Once their cigarettes cost as much as those sold off-reservation, non-Indians would no longer have an incentive to buy them. That’s the rub: Indians make money selling tax-free smokes to people who hate high taxes, and they don’t want to sacrifice a lucrative source of revenue. The state has tried previously to enforce the collection of cigarette taxes to non-Indians, but the Indians have always found some loophole to avoid paying up, or caused such a ruckus that the state has backed down. It can no longer afford to, and seems to have constructed the law in such a way as to address legal issues. Paterson should at least give the law a try. Maybe he can offer other economic incentives, involving Indian gambling casinos, for example, to placate the tribes. But the state has an immediate economic interest in getting non-Indian smokers to pay this tax, and a longer-term one in getting them to quit. Get ALL of our news...Click here to subscribe to our online edition, a complete replica of our print edition.
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July 4, 2009
9:18 a.m. [ Suggest removal ]
What part of sovereign do you not understand?
1:59 p.m. [ Suggest removal ]
You've got to be kidding. Whoever wrote this article is a fool and no friend of liberty. People better wise up and get rid of the larcenous politicians who have driven this state into the gutter. Journalists who enable a government that has progressively taken more and more of our money and continues to find more ways to regulate our business and personal affairs should go back to school and study history a bit more closely.