4 months ago
With the state four billion dollars in the red, some are hoping to trim the deficit by collecting taxes on cigarettes sold on Indian Reservations.
But some elected leaders fear any attempt to do so could cause history to repeat itself. In July of 1992, as a form of protest, members of the Seneca Tribe tossed burning tires onto Interstate 90, forcing state police to shut down the highway. They were trying to send a message to the state that it had no right to tax cigarettes on sovereign territory. More than 17 years later, with the state in desperate need of revenue, some worry it could happen again. As native American Tribe members from across New York State spoke to state senate leaders during a Tuesday hearing in New York City, some Senecas set up a small bonfire in the same exact spot of the 1992 incident. "It's not our problem," Former Seneca Council Member Rick Jemison said of the state's budget woes. "The New York State Legislature overspends and overtaxes. They want us to be part of a bailout plan. We're not buying into it."
REPORTER: Should the governor, in some fashion, try to collect that revenue from that tax?
RANZENHOFER: Well, I think he should. I mean, I think that's unfair for all of the local mom and pop convenience stores to be punished as a result of that. But how the state collects the money could make all of the difference. The governor is asking the federal government to create a national law, forcing all reservations to collect state sales tax. But that could take years. Ranzenhofer said he'd like to see the state tax cigarettes before they're sold when they're distributed. RANZENHOFER: My guess would be no, if you want to go by what's happened the last 20 years -- a lot of noise, a lot of hearings, a lot of discussion, but at the end of the day I haven't seen it successfully happen.
