New York’s Governor David Paterson may sign legislation mandating collection of state cigarette tax at New York’s Indian reservations. The measure was passed in the State Assembly months ago but died in the State Senate in June. Suddenly, in the manner of a miraculous resurrection, we’re told, the senators passed the bill on Friday, August 8, without any debate. The Assembly is expected to endorse the measure once again. Then it goes to the governor.
The Buffalo News (Link) (Stored link) says this was “surprising” to lobbyists on both sides of the issue. We leave it to our readers as to whether the “surprise” is being feigned by mega-funded antismoker lobbyists or by the dumb senators who voted the pogrom way. Dead bills are not spontaneously “born again” and passed without debate because of Divine intervention. The turnaround in the Senate was no momentary fluke: the body which killed the bill just two months ago revived its corpse last Friday with but two dissenting votes.
The mortals who engineered this gang bang always disdain debate (“it’s over” for them), and having craftily averted that altogether in the Senate, naturally they now prefer to pose before the press with mouths agape, speechless with shock. The connivers know who they are and are laughing, up their sleeves, at what they’ve pulled off on the hush-hush.
That’s antismoker business as usual. There will be lots of Big Pharma money channelled to obliging senators (all 62 State Senate seats are contested this November.) New Yorkers: check your so-called representatives’ votes on this issue and do all you can to throw the crooked bums out. Let them know why as well.
Watch how this business develops too. The issue of state tax collection on Indian reservation sales has been around for a long time in New York. As the Buffalo News reports: “the last time the state tried collecting the tax, violent protests erupted along the Thruway, which was shut down during clashes between Indian protestors and state troopers.”
The paper says the Thruway war against proposed demands for state taxes happened in 1995, but that’s wrong, the two most recent such incidents, both involving blocking Thruway traffic, occurred in 1992 and in 1997. Blood was shed, then, and the Indians’ determination has not altered, since.
Just a year ago (see near end of article at: Link — Stored link), when the issue reared its head again, the tribe’s president asserted, “we are not going to be tax collectors for New York State.” In the current situation, the head of the Indian Nation reminds the press: “We will always act to protect the Seneca people’s rights.” The Seneca’s full recent press statement is quoted at: (Link) (Stored link).
If Governor Paterson signs this bill the sovereign Indian nation will give him Hell to pay. Good on them. As the Buffalo Business First journal recalls (Link) (Stored link): “Similar state votes have ended when former governors George Pataki, Hugh Carey and Mario Cuomo all refused to sign the bill.” Paterson’s office is giving no indication of what the governor may do. We have no expectation that he has any inclination to fairness or decency. He had better be scared.
Many citizens of New York and elsewhere purchase discount products at sovereign Indian shops. Buying in large volume may expose you to a threat of legal harassment. Buying over the Internet (i.e. by mail order) from these sources can also be problematic. Smart consumers seek fair prices available without harassment.
Cigarettes are a cheap product. The real retail value of a high quality pack of cigarettes is less than one American dollar. Even on the reservation you are paying the federal tax of 39 cents per pack, and if you’re buying the old and famous Big Tobacco brands, you’re paying, there as everywhere within the USA, about a buck and a half per pack into the MSA (and as such are probably too clueless to know about FORCES in the first place.)
Raping smokers is our nasty society’s delight du jour. The government and its antismoker cronies produce conditions of misery and of war, out of greed, and out of sadism. Watch what they do, but no matter what they do, cigarettes at fair prices will always be around, for smart folks to buy.
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