The Tonawanda News
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How much is a pack of cigarettes really worth? That’s become something of an existential question in New York lately, with the state poised to collect its outrageous $4.35-per-pack tax from Native American retailers, who have traditionally not been subject to the collection, even when selling to non-Indian customers.
It’s a fool’s errand on the part of Gov. David Paterson, who’s pushed for the collection as one small part of his plan to put New York on a stronger financial footing. It won’t help the deficit in the long run and in the short term it could lead to violent protests and furthering the legacy of mistrust between natives and state government.
First, a brief history of one smoker’s relationship to the local economy.
When I started smoking about 10 years ago (a moronic decision that I’d take back in a heartbeat if I could), the price of a pack was about $2.50. I rarely bothered to drive to the reservation 30 minutes from my house because that price was low enough that it wasn’t worth the effort.
Then it went up to about $5 per pack. At that point, I began trying to go to the reservation when I could. I didn’t necessarily go out of my way, but if I was out of cigarettes and had the time to make the drive, I’d do it to save the money.
Then last year, the price went up to about $7.50 in local stores. It made regular cigarette smoking a true financial hardship when buying at a gas station or convenience store and I began trying to go to the reservation as often as possible. There the price was still about $4. I switched brands for a while, to a locally produced Indian brand that was about $2, but eventually switched back because I preferred my old brand, even though it was double the cost.
Now the cost is $10 per pack. I’ve been driving to the reservation almost exclusively for the last few months.
Each time the state has raised the tax, it’s led to me buying fewer and fewer of my cigarettes at a place that charges what the state mandates. If the state goes through with its plan to tax sales on the reservation, I’ll just quit entirely. I won’t be able to afford otherwise.
Good for me, bad for the state.
Good for me because I won’t be paying taxes I don’t have to and good for me because if I quit now I’ll probably live longer and die of something other than lung cancer.
Bad for the state because I won’t be paying taxes I don’t have to and bad for the state because I’ll probably live longer and use more Medicaid.
No doubt, this process will repeat itself. During this recession, lots of New Yorkers have had to do without some luxuries. Smoking is quickly becoming one of them.
That is, of course, unless I decide to go on the Internet and buy cigarettes, which will be a viable option for many New Yorkers who can’t kick the habit. There are untold thousands of websites that sell discounted cigarettes through the mail. The federal government is trying to crack down on this, but it has no better chance than it does stopping the multitude of gambling websites that have found loopholes through offshore online bank accounts and the like.
So why, then, is the state bothering to go through the hassle — and at least according to Paterson, the likelihood of violence — for such a small reward?
Quite simply, I don’t know.
It makes no more sense than it did to increase the tax in the first place. Maybe in Manhattan someone is willing to pay $10 for a pack of cigarettes, but upstaters — the majority of whom live close to one of the many Indian reservations in this part of the state — simply won’t. And if people stop paying the tax, there’s no reason to have it. It’ll leave yet another budget hole to fill, probably by taxing pop or whatever next year’s politically incorrect indulgence turns out to be.
The big question is how the Senecas will respond. Seneca Nation President Barry Snyder says he’s committed to a peaceful resolution. Take him at his word, but he hardly has the control of all his constituents, many of whom rely on the sale of cheap cigarettes to feed their families.
Everyone remembers the violent clashes with State Police in the 1990s the last time a governor tried this. With a down economy and other brewing fights between the state and its native tribes, there’s little reason to think it won’t happen again.
And with all that New York’s Native Americans have been through already, you have to ask yourself, how much can you really blame them?
Eric DuVall is the managing editor
of the Tonawanda News.
