Looks like Gov. Paterson was just blowing smoke when he asked the feds to assess the risk of violence from attempts to collect cigarette taxes from state Indian reservations.
At a state Senate hearing last Tuesday, Paterson’s chief counsel, Peter Kiernan, made clear that his boss would not pursue the taxes, because the gov — like his predecessors, George Pataki and Eliot Spitzer — just doesn’t think enforcing the tax law is worth the hassle.
Even though his recent request for a federal “threat assessment” suggested that he was preparing to go after the taxes. And even though the courts say the state has every right to collect taxes from cigarette sales to non-Indians.
Paterson, it seems, is just too nervous about the prospect of tribal violence to claim what Albany is legally owed.
What a dangerous message to send.
Among the “costs” of enforcement (i.e., excuses for non-action), Kiernan noted “the psychic harm of forgone opportunity to live in peace with those who are entitled to sovereignty and their interpretation of what that means.”
Say what? He’s talking about tribes that rioted, threw burning tires on the Thruway and fought state troopers, sending many to the hospital, when authorities tried to collect the tax in 1992 and 1997.
Indeed, tribal leaders have made their current intentions clear, too.
“We will never allow the state to tax our commerce,” said Seneca leader JC Seneca. “A strong reaction to further affronts on tribal sovereignty is inevitable,” warned an Oneida spokesman.
Of course, the issue is hardly “sovereignty”; with some 300 million packs flowing out of state reservations each year, what’s really at stake is a vast racket premised on an unfair tax advantage. Law-enforcement agents believe even terrorist networks are getting a piece of the action.
Meanwhile, the state and city lose an estimated $1 billion a year in uncollected tax revenues — even as both face multibillion-dollar budget shortfalls.
Paterson’s message? We won’t collect taxes from you if you threaten violence.
Clearly, he has no right to gripe when critics attack his lack of mettle.