Governor’s signature on cigarette tax bill escalates tobacco war
By
Gale Courey Toensing
Story Published:
Jan 2, 2009
Story Updated:
Jan 2, 2009
UTICA, N.Y. – The sovereignty battle over Indian trade rights was raised a notch Dec. 15 when New York Gov. David Paterson signed a bill intended to force the collection of state sales taxes on tobacco products sold to non-Indians in Indian country.
Paterson announced his approval of the bill at a press conference in Utica, N.Y. surrounded by legislators who sponsored the bill and elected officials who have long pressured the governor to pursue what they perceive as the state’s entitlement to a share of revenues from sovereign Indian nations.
The pressure reached fever pitch in the last year as the state faces budget deficits of tens of billions of dollars. Officials estimate the state could garner more than $62 million a year from the Indian tobacco trade.
“We profess great respect for the Indian sovereign nations and we expect to continue to demonstrate that respect for them, and what we are going to do today is try to alleviate an issue that’s existed for a very long time and we won’t be able to alleviate it just today, but we hope we’re taking steps in what will be a process that will reach that goal and that end. With the current financial situation, this tax will help bring extra revenue for the state,” Paterson said.
A spokesman for the Oneida Indian Nation said the new law will be challenged in court.
“The only thing assured by the bill being signed into law today is ongoing litigation,” said Mark F. Emery, director of media relations in the Oneida Nation Public Affairs Department.
“Rather than collecting money for the state, this bill collects money for lawyers who will be litigating the legality of this law. None of the state’s other efforts to infringe on sovereignty have worked, and there is no reason to believe this will work either. If the state is serious about resolving this issue, it will negotiate with Indian nations rather than constantly attacking them,” Emery said.
The bill would force wholesalers to sign an oath, under penalty of perjury, which would be filed with both the state and tobacco companies, saying that the cigarettes they sell would not be resold untaxed in violation of state law.
A state appeals court placed an injunction against a similar law passed in 2006 because the state tax department had not worked out a coupon system for reservation retailers to claim tax refunds on cigarettes sold to tribal members.
The new law is an end run around that obstacle, Paterson said.
“Seeing that we can’t get around that encumbrance, (legislators) introduced legislation that we will now ask for certification under penalty of law to those wholesalers that sell without collecting taxes. That’s in simple (terms) what the bill does. This is a new approach and we hope this will be an effective approach to solve this problem.”
In September, business leaders in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy vowed to collaboratively battle any attempt by New York State to interfere in the Indian tobacco trade.
Editor’s note: The OIN owns Four Directions Media, parent company of Indian Country Today.
Friday, Oct 16 at 7:41 PM Sam Redeye wrote ...
The Seneca Nation considers themselves a sovereign nation, separate from NYS. Canada is obviously separate from NYS, yet if I buy something in Canada and bring it across the border, I get taxed on it. Why is this not the same as white people buying cigarettes and gasoline on a reservation? It is exactly the same. The Native Americans are so opposed to taxing whites because they'd never be able to survive with the purchases made by just other Native Americans.
30697287 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Sunday, Dec 21 at 11:27 AM John wrote ...
How do we make it clear that we are not defending the rights for nonnative people to avoid tax liability and acknowledge that the states may have all kinds of unreasonable authority to tax or otherwise fleece their residents? We just insist that the states cannot regulate what we do on our lands. What the State does in their jurisdiction only concerns us when laws are passed or enforced selectively to interfere with our commerce. Our sovereignty is not a gift or a privilege. It's our birthright.
13961538 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Friday, Dec 19 at 10:07 AM Danny wrote ...
I believe that the tax on cigarettes should be left off, however a gallon of gasoline should have a cap on how much can be made off of it by everyone who sells it; Native Americans included!!
13888568 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Wednesday, Dec 17 at 2:27 PM friend and neighbor wrote ...
Gov. Patterson, streamline your cost of doing business like every other business has to do these days. Tryng to get more tax monies out of anyone, let alone the Seneca Nation is going to cost the state more than it could ever expect to gain. The Seneca Nation has been the only bright spot in our western New York economy. Your not going to collect any taxes if nobody has any income. Every other day, another company closes, why add another 1000 plus jobs to the list.
13784523 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Tuesday, Dec 16 at 9:59 PM Rob wrote ...
Patterson wouldn't know what he just signed,people put things in front of his face. White line to sniff,black line sign name. He's a puppet. Wonder how much money he payed on his illegal activities/
13724494 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Tuesday, Dec 16 at 9:07 PM Robin Diggihyatgoh wrote ...
This is a discriminatory act against our First Peoples. What is next our dogs who pass gas? Treaties are not good with the non-Native Americans. Our tobacco trade routes haqve not been honored! NYS has not kept their end of the deal with The Seneca Nation. This is about your convenience store owners (Foreigners from other countries). When do we (The Iroquois People-Haudeenasaunee)who the US A used our pattern for their consitution ever get any respect.
13722284 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Tuesday, Dec 16 at 6:37 PM SENECA GRANDMOTHER wrote ...
DO THE INDIANS HAVE TO TAKE OVER THE STATE OF NEW YORK AND TEACH THEM HOW TO LIVE WITHIN THEIR MEANS? MAYBE THE FAT POLITICIANS COULD PITCH IN AND TAKE A PAY CUT AND CUT SOME OF THEIR FAT STAFF THAT PUNCH IN AND GO HOME AND COME BACK TO PUNCH OUT. WE WATCH HOW YOUR PEOPLE OPERATE THERE IN THE STATE. TIGHTEN YOUR BELT NYS BECAUSE YOUR NOT GETTING ONE RED CENT AGAIN FROM OUR PEOPLE HAVEN'T YOU ALREADY GOTTEN 58 MILLION DOLLARS FROM US THIS YEAR! SHAME ON YOU PEOPLE!
13715529 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Tuesday, Dec 16 at 6:30 PM SENECA GRANDMOTHER wrote ...
MY ELDERS HAVE ALWAYS TOLD ME " NEVER LET TAXATION ON OUR RESERVATION CAUSE ONCE THEY TAX ONE ITEM IT OPENS THE DOOR FOR ALL OTHER TAXATION" HOLD ON PEOPLE HERE COMES PROPERTY TAX! WAIT AND SEE IT WON'T BE ENOUGH. WHY DOESN'T NYS STATE TAKE THEIR BUDGET LINE ITEM BY LINE ITEM AND MAKE THEIR CUTS. I DIDN'T HEAR THE GOVERNOR SAY THEY WOULD QUIT THROWING OUT BRAND NEW FURNITURE SO THAT THEY COULD GET NEW FURNITURE.
13715129 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Tuesday, Dec 16 at 2:33 PM Buckwheat wrote ...
After the state of New York pays the Oneida somewhere between $ 2-4 billion they owe us for the 250 thousand stolen acres, the tribe can consider paying a tax. Of course, the Oneida settlement should include all the tax money that was collected by the state illegally for 200 plus years on Oneida land. We can add that into the past due account for the Oneida Nation.
13699029 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Tuesday, Dec 16 at 1:28 PM Seneca Resident wrote ...
The Senecas will NEVER pay taxes to a foreign Nation being NYS The Senecas have treaty rights and as a soveriegn Nation they control their own commerce. NYS is ignorant on the meaning of sovereignty and treaty rights. A group of Iroquois People want to request a day to meet with the legislative branch and senate of NYS to educate them on the people who reside as a foreign Nation within NY boundaries. The Governor is certainly a very ignorant person to sign something he knows nothing about.
13694184 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Tuesday, Dec 16 at 12:51 PM Jenn wrote ...
Governor Paterson is no better than any of his predecessors and he is now trying to fix the mistakes they made by making an ever bigger mistake in signing this bill. The costs of this dishonorable decision will be far greater than any revenue that might ever potentially be collected. Hopefully the next election will provide us with a better choice for our Governor.
13691659 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Tuesday, Dec 16 at 11:26 AM The People wrote ...
Emory correctly states that all this law does is collect taxes for the lawyers who will fight law suits on behalf of NYS. Great, so the Oneida answer to that reality is to, what? Hire more lawyers and initiate that lawsuit, further draining the Onieda cofers? That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. The answer is with the Oneida people the OIN serves, maybe they don't want to deal in American made products, maybe they want to deal in products they make free from the reach of NYS taxes.
13685219 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Tuesday, Dec 16 at 10:16 AM Thomas Moll wrote ...
I am a New York resident and am disgusted by Paterson's attempt to require Indian Nations located within New York's borders to subsidize the decades long mismanagement of this State's fiscal affairs by inept New York politicians. In Paterson's press release in support of this Bill, he uses the phrase "New York's Indian Nations" more than once as though these independent, sovereign Indian Nation's belong to the State of New York. I am bewildered by Paterson's endorsement of this racist notion.
13680364 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Monday, Dec 15 at 11:25 PM Tom Moll wrote ...
Like Magee and Nozzolio, when it comes to understanding the indigenous sovereignty of Indians, Paterson, by signing this Bill, has proven himself to be just another ignorant racist. In Paterson's press release he uses the phrase New York's Indian Nations more than once; this phrase is paternalistic, racist and just plain wrong. Until New York's politicians come to understand that Indian Territory is not part of New York State, this tax issue will not go away.
13664259 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Monday, Dec 15 at 9:50 PM Preston Griffith (Monacan) wrote ...
The ruling appears, at the very least, to be non-sensical and, at worst, racist. The legal theory that the States can tax "non-indians" in Indian Country, thusly, means that under the Equal Protection Clause that Indian Nation can require States to remit any tax placed on Indians in "non-Indian" country. Does this mean that States can have remitted to it, any taxes paid by its citizens in another State? Quite a slippery slope we have placed before us.
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