Non-Indian business hit hard by New York tobacco tax laws

Thursday, November 3, 2011  

Non-Indian businesses appear to be hurting the most now that the state of New York has imposed its tobacco tax in Indian Country.

Wholesalers that supply tobacco to tribal smokeshops must pay the $4.35-per-pack tax up front. But tribal retailers are forging out on their own, drying up the wholesale market.

"All it did was put us out of business, maybe by the end of this year," Frank Atter, whose wholesale business used to supply premium tobacco to tribal smokeshops, told The Buffalo News. His company used to sell 500 cases a week to tribal retailers before the new law went into effect.

Tribal smokeshops are supplying their shops with brands produced in Indian Country. The state isn't going after those sales -- for now.

"We've had good success," J.C. Seneca, the owner of Six Nations Manufacturing, told the paper.

Get the Story:
Watching a policy go up in smoke (The Buffalo News 11/1)

Fewer in support of taxation of tribal tobacco in New York (10/26)