Say this for Mayor Mike and his prohibitive cigarette taxes: At least he wants to collect the revenue.
Hizzoner has filed suit against eight tobacco retailers on the Poospatuck Indian reservation on Long Island for allegedly funneling millions of cartons of tax-free cigarettes to buttleggers.
The extent of the smuggling seems beyond dispute: According to state figures, a whopping 24 million cartons of tax-free cigarettes have been sold to Poospatuck retailers over the last four years – ostensibly for consumption by the reservation’s 279 residents.
As the mayor points out, that’s more than 19,000 smokes per day, per person.
And that, according to City Hall, puts the retailers squarely in violation of the Federal Cigarette Contraband Act – and entitles the city to recoup up to $195 million in lost tax revenue.
The extent of the smuggling, of course, is a direct result of the sky-high cigarette taxes that impose a combined city-state burden of fully $4.25 a pack – driving business en masse away from legitimate, tax-paying retailers.
Not to mention, likely funneling millions of dollars into the hands of smuggling-financed foreign terrorists, according to law-enforcement officials.
That’s a reality that Bloomberg and city Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden ignore when crowing about the “public health benefits” of confiscatory taxation.
Then again, equally culpable is Gov. Paterson, who’s yet to clamp down on all reservation trafficking – which costs the state closer to a billion dollars a year!
Mike could help get that job done. Paterson needs to follow, umm, suit.