Laws are meant to be enforced

Opinion

February 26, 2006

Anonymous The Tonawanda News Sun Feb 26, 2006, 12:26 AM EST

When is a law a law? Apparently in New York it’s not when it goes into the books, but when it starts getting enforced.

This Wednesday, a state law requiring Native American businesses to stop the tax-free sale of cigarettes to non-Indians at Internet sites and reservation stores goes into effect.

But will it be enforced? Don’t bet on it.

The state Department of Taxation and Finance says it won’t enforce the new law requiring tribal businesses to pay the state’s rising cigarette taxes.

Instead, Commissioner Andrew Eristoff said he’ll wait to see if the Legislature agrees with Gov. George Pataki to again delay enforcement by a year — a delay the Democrat-led Assembly already rejects.

“This is a dangerous precedent,” said state Sen. Raymond Meier, a Utica Republican whose district includes the Oneida tribe’s Turning Stone Casino.

"If people are able to say that ‘We are going to ignore the law and try to negotiate a different legal framework with the state,’ it’s an invitation to anarchy.”

Not quite, but business is expected to continue as usual and it will cost the state millions of dollars.

In 2005, 9.5 billion packs of cigarettes were sold in New York without being taxed or stamped. That was up from 4.3 billion in 2000, according Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. He estimates lost taxes to the state and New York City total about $300 million a year, while costing off-reservation retailers untold customers.

All we’re looking for is a level playing field. In this area we’ve seen first-hand how reservation-based cigarette and gasoline business have flourished while those forced to collect taxes have struggled. We’re seeing it right now in downtown

Niagara Falls with Seneca Niagara Casino.

No one’s asking Native Americans to pay taxes. The law provides coupons to allow Indians to avoid taxes on the cigarettes they buy for their own personal use. Fine.

We realize Pataki’s administration doesn’t want to see tires burning on Route 31 again, but at some point these unfair tax-free sales must stop. Wednesday seems like a fine time to start.

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