The arrest of an Onondaga County woman last week on tax-evasion charges has us scratching our heads as to why some state laws are enforced while others aren't.

Yes, the woman seems to have intentionally avoided paying sales tax on cigarettes at an American Indian enterprise in Cayuga County, but what about the law requiring Indian tribes to collect the tax in the first place? That law has been in place since 2006, but the state has yet to collect a cent of these taxes.

Ignorance of the law cannot be used as an excuse for breaking it, but there are plenty of laws on the books that the average person is unaware of and plenty more that are rarely, if ever, enforced.

How many New Yorkers contact the tax department after they bring home items they purchased in Pennsylvania or Massachusetts? How many are stopped and quizzed by the police after returning home from cross-state shopping trips? Very few.

So, do people who buy gas and cigarettes at Indian-owned stores need to be worried about getting arrested? Maybe. Maybe not.

The state police said last week that the recent arrest was not a sign that the state was beginning a crackdown on consumers, but who's to say that very tactic won't be used in the future? If customers were to begin getting arrested left and right, the decrease in sales at Indian-owned businesses might be enough to get tribal leaders to the bargaining table with the state over the sales-tax issue.

In this recent case, we have a shopper who bought less than $200 worth of cigarettes being charged with a misdemeanor. On the other hand there is the uncollected sales tax from the tribes, by some estimates as much as $150 million annually.

State lawmakers need to take a close look at how - and more importantly why - only some state laws are being enforced. And fairness and consistency need to be the benchmarks.