Local representatives are calling on state leaders to move forward on a law that would force the state to collect taxes on American Indian-owned businesses.

State Sen. Michael Nozzolio and Assemblymen Gary Finch and Brian Kolb sent a joint letter calling on state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to send Senate bill 8146 to Gov. David Paterson. The bill, passed by the Senate in August, authorizes the state to collect sales tax from American Indian businesses that sell products to non-native consumers.

Silver has yet to give the bill to Paterson, who would then decide whether to sign it into law.

In the letter, Kolb, Finch and Nozzolio claim that collecting sales taxes on goods sold at such businesses would increase the state's tax revenues by $400 million a year.

“It is unacceptable for this legislation to languish any longer,” Kolb said in a written statement.

The letter comes on the heels of Cayuga and Seneca county officials seizing more than 3.5 million untaxed cigarettes from two convenience stores owned by the Cayuga Nation. On Nov. 25, law enforcement officials executed search warrants at Lake Side Trading stores in Union Springs and Seneca Falls, collecting boxes and boxes of cigarettes and surveillance data.

At the time, Cayuga County District Attorney Jon Budelmann said tax evasion charges were likely. Organizers of the raid also said at the time that they asked multiple state departments for assistance in the investigation but were denied.

Cayuga Nation representatives have said they will fight the charges and have filed motions to have their merchandise returned.

Attorneys representing the Cayugas will argue in state Supreme Court in Auburn, Wednesday, that any pending felony tax evasion charges should be dismissed before being filed on the grounds that the cigarette raid violated the tribe's sovereignty.