Posted on 09/16/2010 10:48:19 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
TUSCARORA INDIAN NATION, N.Y., Sept. 16 (UPI) -- An American Indian tribe told motorists it may collect tolls from cars to protest a court decision giving New York the right to tax the tribe's cigarette sales.
"It's not just about taxes," a member of the Tuscarora tribe told The Buffalo (N.Y.) News. "This is about our freedom and our human rights. We're supposed to be a sovereign nation, and yet the state keeps trying to tax us."
Several dozen members of the Iroquoian-language-family tribe carrying signs and flags stopped passing cars on a two-lane state highway and handed fliers to the drivers informing them of the possible toll each time they crossed the reservation line.
"Coming Soon: Tuscarora Toll. $1 per vehicle. Located on Route 31 and Route 104," the fliers said.
The state's highest court, the Court of Appeals, lifted a temporary restraining order Tuesday that had blocked the state from enforcing new tax regulations that let New York collect cigarette taxes from non-Indian customers.
Indians living on the Tuscarora reservation would be exempt from the tax.
"Once they tax cigarettes, what will they want next?" asked Adrian Bigfoot, who said he held no office in the Tuscarora Indian Nation government, but said the government is a participatory democracy in which all Tuscaroras have a voice.
New York is "trying to break our treaties," he said.
The state Department of Taxation and Finance, responsible for collecting and enforcing state tax laws and dispersing tax revenues, had no immediate comment.
The court ruling does not apply to New York's Seneca and Cayuga nations, which remain exempt from the tax until at least Sept. 28 due to a separate restraining order issued by U.S. District Court Judge Richard Arcara, radio station WBEN-AM, Buffalo, reported.
The gay, man-child STARTED his “administration” by breaking contracts! (GM)
He won’t honor treaties of any kind. He HAS no honor.
(GAWD! I love that he’s pissing off EVERYONE!!!!)
Nanny State PING!
I am backing the Native Americans - where are all the lefties who love the Native Americans
They should do what the tribes in NM did when the Feds got too heavy handed with them. Shut the state highway down at their border. “Go around, white eyes!”
Treaty with Native Americans broken again..shame
yes!
It is IMMORAL to take dirty cigarette money.
the state loses enough money on these casino scams anyway......NYS is in dire straits....they need the cigarette tax......
maybe the tribes could renegotiate their compacts and agree to pay a certain percent of their profits to the state?...and then the state would stop taxing their cigarette sales...
Sorry, but this whole cigarette tax and the associated limited distribution that has passed recently should be not only illegal but unconstitutional. Just another variation of government overstepping their bounds.
I think you’re on the wrong website. This isn’t the “big government, tax everything that moves, screw Constitutional authority” website.
Heh, actually, I think it is...
“they do not have the right to tell other “sovereign nations”...the USA....that they can’t tax their own citizens....”
three points:
1.) I can agree with your above statement, but NYS does not have the right to compel the sovereign Native American Nations to collect said tax!
2.) NYS need for revenue IS NOT a valid justification for breaking agreements.
3.) NYS need for revenue IS NOT a valid concern of the sovereign Native American Nations, pure and simple!
You have probably missed the latest taxes, no transportation of cigarettes, crap that has passed for legislation lately. That may be because they passed it without a vote...
Hell, they made it illegal to send cigarettes through the mail..how unAmerican is that?
Doesn't it?
I did read a little blurb about that but didn’t get into the details. I still buy loose “pipe” tobacco through the mail. (I think.)
Heh, that is also going away soon. It does really irritate me as I was use to buying cigs via the internet. Just another bogus attempt to collect taxes I suppose, kinda reminds me of the30’s.
I don’t think so!
For example, sales tax is a tax upon the seller, the authority to tax derives from the privilege granted to the commercial enterprise to do business, as expressed in granting a business license!
Point of sale has absolutely nothing to do with authority to tax!
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