As New York Indian Nation leaders battle in courtrooms to preserve their tax-free cigarette market, tensions are rising on reservations, where the state’s renewed efforts to tax sales to non-Native customers is viewed as yet another attack on Native American rights. “For 200 years, we have been dealing with efforts to take our land, efforts to take our resources, efforts to take our jurisdiction,” said Robert Odawi Porter, senior policy adviser and counsel for the 7,800-member Seneca nation in western New York, which says its cigarette business is a $100 million-a-year indust ... Jump to full article >>

As legal and political battles continue over whether New York will ever collect taxes from the sale of cigarettes on Indian land, the Oneida Indian Nation is taking steps to strengthen its own position. The nation announced today it will move its Buffalo-based cigarette manufacturing plant to Oneida to take advantage of a federal law protecting products tribes manufacture on their own reservations from state tax laws. According to a press release from the nation, the federal law preempts state efforts to tax products manufactured on reservation land. The nation purchased cigarette manufacturer ... Jump to full article >>

Central Wisconsin cities are selling fewer permits to allow cigarette sales, and it’s not just related to the statewide smoking ban. About the same time the smoking ban went into effect, July 1, a change in federal law regulating cigarette vending machines was implemented, said Marshfield City Clerk Deb Hall, whose office sells the licenses for cigarette sales. Federal law bans cigarette vending ma-chines in any establishment where children are allowed. “Since children can accompany their parents to a tavern and a lot of taverns used vending machines for cigarette sales, we didn ... Jump to full article >>

Cigarette sales at traditional outlets have taken a serious tumble in the Rochester region and statewide since a sharply higher state tax took effect in July. “I’d say sales are down 30 percent,” Scott Hardenbrook, manager at Di Prima’s Fairport Mobil, 1311 Fairport Road, said Wednesday. “The drop began as soon as the tax took effect. Some people are going to the discount brands. Some are going to the cigarillos. Some are going to the reservations. But everybody is complaining.” On July 1, the excise tax on cigarettes increased from $2.75 to $4.35 a pack, th ... Jump to full article >>

A new federal law intended to make sure mail-order cigarette sellers don’t avoid taxes is frustrating well-meaning people who want to mail smokes, including a Louisville man who can no longer send Marlboro Menthols to his grandson, a Marine serving in Afghanistan. “Why punish a serviceman with this act when he can’t even have a cigarette over there,” Jack Gray said. “That’s not believable.” It’s an unintended consequence of the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act, or PACT Act as it’s known for short, said a spokeswoman for the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Herbert Kohl, D-Wisc. Be ... Jump to full article >>

Almost 50 years after the termination era ended, a New York state legislator has reintroduced the idea with a recommendation to terminate the Unkechaug Nation. Sen. Craig M. Johnson, a Democrat who represents Long Island where the Unkechaug and their ancestors have lived since time immemorial, issued the recommendation in a June 11 report called “Executive Refusal: Why the State has Failed to Collect Cigarette Taxes on Native American Reservations.” Chief Harry Wallace, Unkechaug leader since 1994, said the recommendation is tantamount to advocating “cultural genocide.” “It’s genoc ... Jump to full article >>

With the South Carolina 50-cent cigarette tax increase going into effect Thursday, many smokers are preparing to stock up on pre-tax hike cigarettes. At Southside Tobacco in Socastee, they have been keeping a close eye on the cigarette tax increase from the beginning. “I have been following this pretty closely,” Matt Sellers admitted. “It’s pretty much my way of life. I have to be able to support my family and this really hurts us.” He says the store stocked up a little bit to meet the demand for pre-tax hike cigarettes, but they are also hoping the shelves get sl ... Jump to full article >>

Gov. David Paterson’s latest plan to force the state’s Indian nations to pay cigarette taxes rekindled opposition from two of three Central New York tribes. And a Western New York lawmaker predicted enforcing the collection of the tax could lead to violence as it did 20 years ago. “The Seneca Nation will feel it was once again lied to by representatives of the state of New York,” said Republican Sen. George Maziarz, whose district includes the Tuscarora Indian Nation territory. “I suspect, I hope that I’m wrong, that there will be violence and will be people hurt.” Joeseph Heath, ... Jump to full article >>

Kenya and Tanzanian trade delegates are headed for another face-off as the anti smoking rule fronted by Canada comes up for review by the World Trade Organisation in Geneva on Tuesday. Tanzania has said its delegation will appeal against Canada’s proposed law which seeks to control smoking by encouraging alternative cash crops to tobacco, while banning other ingredients used in cigarette manufacturing. The proposed law, which is expected to come into force later this year, has since filtered into the draft guidelines of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) of the World Health O ... Jump to full article >>

When was the last time someone in Albany had a new idea that didn’t involve raising taxes? Seriously, I’m asking. I would love it if someone showed me some sort of innovative approach to public policy problem solving that’s been undertaken by someone in state government. Because right about now, I’m getting a little sick of the golden oldies. The state is primed to raise the cigarette tax again on Monday, which is about the 40th time they’ve gone to that well when they needed to turn a quick buck. Public health advocates applaud anything that hurts the tobacco companies, so of course ... Jump to full article >>

The justices rule that a legal Texas resident’s two possession arrests do not constitute an ‘aggravated felony’ and that he should not have been sent to Mexico. The Supreme Court on Monday blocked the government from routinely deporting legal immigrants for minor drug possession convictions, a decision that immigrant rights lawyers said would spare tens of thousands of otherwise law-abiding residents from being sent out of the U.S. In a 9-0 decision, the justices said a Texas man who had pleaded guilty at different times to having a marijuana cigarette and a single Xanax anti ... Jump to full article >>