"Gov. Andrew Cuomo said earlier this year that he intended to move forward with the state’s effort to collect taxes on cigarettes sold by Indian-owned stores to non-Indian customers, and last week he passed a key test in making good on that pledge.
The governor’s 2011-2012 state budget proposal, officially unveiled on Tuesday, includes $130 million in anticipated revenue from excise taxes on cigarettes sold by Indian-owned stores, such as the Lake Side convenience stores operated by the Cayuga Indian Nation of New York in Union Springs and Seneca Falls.
Cuomo is the fifth consecutive governor to make some type of move in this direction, but all the others failed to make good on their promises.
A big difference for Cuomo, though, is a solid a plan has been put in place by his immediate predecessor, former Gov. David Paterson. Fueled with court rulings that have made it clear what the state needed to do in order to legally collect taxes while protecting the rights of Indian nation members, Paterson put forth regulations that collect the taxes at the wholesale level and provide for a reasonable amount of untaxed cigarettes to be distributed to each tribe for their members."
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Our View: Tax collection back on track under Cuomo
(The Auburn Citizen 2/7)
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