BUFFALO - The state Department of Taxation and Finance has advised a Buffalo cigarette wholesaler it can ignore a new law requiring tax collection on tobacco products sold to Seneca Nation and other Indian businesses.
That eased tensions on Indian reservations in western New York where nervous suppliers cut off shipments to smoke shops earlier in the week.
Indians accuse the state of ignoring their sovereignty.
In 1997, the last time the state tried to collect the tobacco taxes, confrontations between Senecas and state police closed a section of the Thruway.
Officials in Cayuga County are paying close attention to the issue of sales taxes collected by Indian-owned businesses. The Cayuga Indian Nation of New York operates a convenience store/ gas station in Union Springs.
By noon Friday, supplier Milhem Attea & Bros. resumed shipping cigarettes to Seneca smoke shops, spokeswoman Rosemary Saffire said. “We have it in writing, so we can take it to a judge and say, ”Look, we have permission,“' she said.
In the letter, the Tax Department said it had a “long-standing policy of allowing untaxed cigarettes” to be sold to Indian retailers. The agency noted Gov. George Pataki had proposed changing the law that kicked in March 1.
One idea was to delay implementation. The State Senate and Assembly earlier this week rejected that.
State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has warned wholesalers that, no matter what the Tax Department claims, the cigarette tax collection law is in effect. His aides have said wholesalers who ship untaxed cigarettes to Indian retailers face possible prosecution.
Spitzer said Friday during a stop in Buffalo, “You can't announce to the world that a law will simply be ignored and not enforced.” He said he would talk to the Pataki administration and that he would “act in a very measured, careful manner, hopefully in conjunction with the executive” branch.
Joseph Crangle, counsel to the Senecas, said the Tax Department disagrees with Spitzer, “and they're the ones in charge of saying what the state tax law is, not the attorney general.”
The Senecas have long maintained that 19th century treaties protect them from the state taxing the nation's products. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, ruled in 1994 that the state could collect taxes on sales to non-Indians.
Indians accuse the state of ignoring their sovereignty.
In 1997, the last time the state tried to collect the tobacco taxes, confrontations between Senecas and state police closed a section of the Thruway.
Officials in Cayuga County are paying close attention to the issue of sales taxes collected by Indian-owned businesses. The Cayuga Indian Nation of New York operates a convenience store/ gas station in Union Springs.
By noon Friday, supplier Milhem Attea & Bros. resumed shipping cigarettes to Seneca smoke shops, spokeswoman Rosemary Saffire said. “We have it in writing, so we can take it to a judge and say, ”Look, we have permission,“' she said.
In the letter, the Tax Department said it had a “long-standing policy of allowing untaxed cigarettes” to be sold to Indian retailers. The agency noted Gov. George Pataki had proposed changing the law that kicked in March 1.
One idea was to delay implementation. The State Senate and Assembly earlier this week rejected that.
State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has warned wholesalers that, no matter what the Tax Department claims, the cigarette tax collection law is in effect. His aides have said wholesalers who ship untaxed cigarettes to Indian retailers face possible prosecution.
Spitzer said Friday during a stop in Buffalo, “You can't announce to the world that a law will simply be ignored and not enforced.” He said he would talk to the Pataki administration and that he would “act in a very measured, careful manner, hopefully in conjunction with the executive” branch.
Joseph Crangle, counsel to the Senecas, said the Tax Department disagrees with Spitzer, “and they're the ones in charge of saying what the state tax law is, not the attorney general.”
The Senecas have long maintained that 19th century treaties protect them from the state taxing the nation's products. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, ruled in 1994 that the state could collect taxes on sales to non-Indians.
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