GOP lawmaker claims tribes owe $1B in taxes

Thursday, January 31, 2008  

New York Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, a Republican, said tribes are cheating the state out of $1 billion in taxes.

Bruno said businesses on reservations owe tobacco and gasoline taxes. He urged Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) to start enforcing the law.

"How do you collect taxes? If people don't pay taxes they end up getting prosecuted," Bruno said, The Albany Times-Union. "I mean if you don't pay your taxes, if your company doesn't pay ... what'll happen?"

When he was campaigning, Spitzer said he would collect the taxes. But the state Department of Taxation and Finance has yet to implement a program to do that.

Get the Story:
Bruno: $1B owed in tribal taxes (The Albany Times-Union 1/30)

Suit planned over reservation taxes in New York (1/29)