| Issue #41, January 19, 2007 |
INDIANS GET SMALL WIN IN SMOKESHOP COURT CASE
By T.J. Clemente
The smoke rising above the state tribal smoke shops are signals applauding a recent state court ruling. Purchasing untaxed, thus less expensive, cigarettes at Indian reservation tribal smoke shops received a reprieve from a state law that was passed to crack down on such sales. Erie County Justice Rose Sconiers, ruled that the law did not have enabling provisions that would have made the law enforceable. The new law was to go into effect on March 1, 2007. Now, it will not.
The new state law would have enabled the state to collect up to forty million dollars in additional tax revenue. And the ruling does not say that the state does not have the right to tax the cigarettes, just that the present law passed does not fund or create infrastructure and process to enforce the law. The reprieve is one thing but the idea of the law is still very upsetting to the many owners of the tribal smoke shops in the state.
One such owner is Chief Harry Wallace, leader of the Unkechang Nation, based on the Poospatuck reservation in Mastic. Chief Wallace believes, “This law was designed to shut us down.” The Chief will certainly be proven correct if the law is revised and again passed and enforced, many consumers who drive out of their way to purchase tax-free, less expensive cigarettes will shop elsewhere. A customer of the Shinnecock Trading Post explained that he drives from East Hampton about once a week to purchase Seneca brand cigarettes for $18 a carton, or $1.80 per pack. Marlboros, which run about $5 per pack at discount convenience stores cost as little as $3.40 at the Shinnecock Trading Post. For the carton-a-week smoker that is a savings of $672 per year. On the other hand, a non-smoker who was told about the $40 million in lost tax revenue quickly responded, “Wow, that means at least $180 million in sales at state tribal smoke shops.”
The owner of The Shinnecock Trading Post, Lance Gumbs, explains his version of the importance of Judge Sconiers’ ruling. “It was the right decision, he said, “because cigarettes are the main staple of tribal business. This keeps our people in jobs and keeps our economy alive.” Realizing this is just a temporary victory, Chief Wallace reportedly declared that, “We will continue to fight and we will continue to do business. This decision is the reaffirmation of our right to lawfully do business on our own territory without interference from the state.”
So for the moment, the purchase of less expensive cigarettes at tribal smoke shops is safe, moving into the summer season. The new state governor, Eliot Spitzer, has not made his feelings known on this topic so far. However, with the momentum of the anti-smoking lobbies gaining strength every day with the main tenet being that cigarette smoking causes cancer that kills people, perhaps it is only a matter of time before business as usual at the reservations changes.
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