Rally: Tax Indian Cigarettes

Marchers threaten Paterson with impeachment

Thursday, September 04, 2008

By Scott Rapp

Staff writer

About 50 people attended a rally Wednesday in Seneca Falls where speaker after speaker called on Gov. David Paterson to force Native Americans to pay sales tax on cigarettes they sell at their businesses.

They had a pointed message for Paterson, too.

"If you will not enforce the law, maybe we should ask that you be impeached," said Peter Same, a Seneca County lawmaker.

Collecting the sales tax, they said, would raise about $400 million a year in much-needed revenue for the state, which is in a budget crisis. It also would create "a level-playing field" for non-Indian businesses that pay the tax, they said.

"Governor, do the right thing. Enforce the law, collect the tax," said Richard Ricci, a member of the Cayuga-Seneca chapter of Upstate Citizens for Equality. The group opposes Indian sovereignty.

The speakers urged Paterson to enforce a 2005 law that requires Indian businesses to pay sales tax, but that statute remains knotted in the legal system.

Last year, a state Supreme Court judge in Buffalo enjoined the law from being enacted because the state Department of Taxation and Finance never created a coupon system for Indians to get tax refunds on cigarettes they buy at Native American businesses. They're entitled by law to the refunds.

Morgan Hook, a spokesman for Paterson, said the injunction precludes the governor from enforcing the law.

The rally was held in front of the office of state Sen. Michael Nozzolio, R-Fayette, not far from where the Cayuga Indian Nation owns and operates a combination gas station and store that sells tax-free cigarettes. The Cayugas have a similar business in the Cayuga County village of Union Springs.

The Oneida Indian Nation, which owns 12 combination gas stations and stores in Madison and Oneida counties, also refuses to collect taxes on its business sales.

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