Written on Monday, December 15th, 2008 at 4:06pm by Christopher Smith | 9 Comments

Cigarettes, Tires, Tempers, and Tolls

The last time a New York Governor tried to collect taxes on the sales of tobacco products on the state’s Indian reservations, this is what happened…courtesy of Associated Press:

About 1,000 American Indians and their supporters briefly blocked traffic on the New York State Thruway Sunday to protest the state’s collection of sales tax on Indian land.

“This is our land.  This Thruway is ours,” said Indian businessman Art Schindler, brother of Seneca Nation President Michael Schindler.

The demonstration started off peacefully along the side of the Thruway, but a handful of protesters later lit tire fires and scuffled with state troopers in the middle of the road.

Protesters also blocked nearby Route 5 and U.S. Route 20. State police detoured traffic around them.

Several minor injuries were reported.

Protesters and police approached each other to negotiate when fighting broke out.

“They tried to come over to talk to us, but we’re just way past that now,” Art Schindler said. “I can’t control anybody’s reactions. Nobody wanted to hear them.”

Last Sunday, about 200 protesters blocked the Thruway for about 45 minutes in the same spot on reservation land about 25 miles south of Buffalo.

Pataki made a mess of that situation with his embargo of fuel and heating oil shipments to the reservations and the state eventually capitulated.

Today, Governor David Paterson announced his intention to collect sales tax on tobacco products sold on Indian Reservations.  Are we ready for another showdown?  In the balance hangs at least $400 million in annual revenue or the honoring of Indian treaties which date back to the 1700’s.

Quietly, in 2007, the Seneca Nation voted to rescind a 1954 resolution that allowed construction of the Thruway along 300 acres of Seneca territory in the Cattaraugus Reservation.  The tribal council said the pact, which paid the Senecas $75,000, had not received the proper federal approvals. In effect, they have declared that the State of New York is trespassing on sovereign Indian land.  From a high level, this would allow them to establish their own toll collection points on the sections of state and federal roads that cross the reservation, including Routes 5 and 20.

They have yet to impose a toll collection system, but perhaps they have simply been waiting for the right time to implement the program.

Paterson may have just provided the impetus for such an action.  If nothing else, there is always the risk of a 1997 redux of the burning tires on the Thruway.

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9 Comments

  1. STEEL says:
    December 15, 2008 at 4:22 pm

    Are they planning on giving back the 75,000 with interest compounded over 54 years?

  2. Chris Smith says:
    December 15, 2008 at 4:50 pm

    No, the equivalent to $75,000 in burnt tires will be returned to NY. Also, some pull tabs.

  3. jack fate says:
    December 15, 2008 at 9:46 pm

    Not for nothing, but I’m pretty sure the treaties that the Seneca’s arguments rest on are from the 1830’s and 1840’s respectively and not the 1700’s. I may be wrong, however. . .

  4. Ethan Cox says:
    December 15, 2008 at 10:40 pm

    Well hey, given this, they can confidently finish their masterwork downtown at least.

  5. Mike In WNY says:
    December 16, 2008 at 12:40 am

    The biggest problem with “taxing the Indians” is the context in which the plan was proposed by Patterson. He is looking for any way he can to raise more revenue for the State. Most people buying smokes are already paying $27.50 in taxes per carton. Now, Patterson wants to tax soft drinks, among other things. The cuts he proposes will most likely result in increase property taxes at the local level.

    We are way beyond the point of increased revenue providing any meaningful improvements to our economy. NYS is living on a champagne budget when it can’t even afford Budweiser. The only thing that is going to stimulate the economy of the State is less spending and less taxes.

  6. Denizen says:
    December 17, 2008 at 10:41 am

    Let me tell you how it will be,
    There’s one for you, nineteen for me,
    ‘Cos I’m the Taxman,
    Yeah, I’m the Taxman.
    Should five per cent appear too small,
    Be thankful I don’t take it all.
    ‘Cos I’m the Taxman,
    Yeah yeah, I’m the Taxman.

    (If you drive a car car), I’ll tax the street,
    (If you try to sit sit), I’ll tax your seat,
    (If you get too cold cold), I’ll tax the heat,
    (If you take a walk walk), I’ll tax your feet.
    Taxman.

    ‘Cos I’m the Taxman,
    Yeah, I’m the Taxman.

  7. cree says:
    December 20, 2008 at 12:18 pm

    Hmm seems you were not there nor have any first hand knowledge of what happened in 97 on I-90 or you wish to paper it over,lol the reports in the Buffalo News were why I never bought another paper after that ,well it did save me some money.In 97 our rally started at the bridge in Irving and we than marched up to the the I-90,down on to the I-90 almost to the edge of the reservation where the Elders read the treaty, on a knoll to our right were somewhere in the neighborhood of Twenty State Police cars,as we begin to walk back down the I-90 they came tearing down off that knoll on to the I-90 up to with in 50 feet of us got out of their cars and a major with a captain on each side of him approached the Elders,at that time we had all turn around and walked back to where the Elders were,out of the blue a Captain struck a boy about 12-14 yrs of age with his fist knocking him to the ground where as he soon joined him and the fist began to fly.Tires burning no that lookes like a picture off the Southerntier Expressway or better known as RT -17.And that my friend is what happened on I-90 and I have a video tape of the whole sorry mess to prove it.!!!

  8. Chris Smith says:
    December 21, 2008 at 9:55 pm

    I didn’t quote The Buffalo News, in fact, I specifically did not use their reports. I went with reports from Carolyn Thompson of The Associated Press.

 

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