CATTARAUGUS INDIAN RESERVATION, N.Y. — The latest in a tangled series of state and federal court decisions has halted New York state’s plan to collect taxes on cigarettes sold by Native American retailers to non-Indian customers. Gov. David Paterson’s office says a state appellate court judge in western New York issued an order today stopping the collections. An earlier order...
CATTARAUGUS INDIAN RESERVATION, N.Y. — The latest in a tangled series of state and federal court decisions has halted New York state’s plan to collect taxes on cigarettes sold by Native American retailers to non-Indian customers.
Gov. David Paterson’s office says a state appellate court judge in western New York issued an order today stopping the collections. An earlier order had been lifted Monday by a state judge, a decision appealed by the Seneca and Cayuga nations.
Those tribes won a federal court order Tuesday temporarily barring collections against them. But the state said it would start imposing the $4.35 per pack levy on cigarettes shipped by wholesalers to other reservation retailers - including at the Onondaga and Oneida territories - starting today.
The Senecas rallied today against the tax. The tribes say it violates their sovereignty and threatens their financial well-being.