http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/ed … KGbQfwc60LGov. Paterson says that the $1.60-a-pack cigarette-tax hike he muscled through the Legislature yesterday will come with a crackdown on Indian-reservation tobacco smuggling, and the result will be an extra $440 million for Albany.
Nonsense.
Reservation retailers have been thumbing their noses at governors from Mario Cuomo to Paterson, building a multi-bil lion-dollar business in the process.
Last year, according to the state Tax Department, some 240 million packs of cigarettes moved through state reservations at an instant profit of up to $4.25 a pop -- then the combined state and city cigarette tax.
The trade has bankrupted legitimate merchants and enriched all manner of disreputable characters -- including, authorities believe, international terrorists.
Paterson couldn't well budget an extra $1.60-per-pack tax without at least prom ising to crack down on the trade.
But nothing in the governor's history, or the new law, indicates that he's serious.
From the start of his incumbency, Paterson has had the power to collect the tax, yet has instead pursued sham "negotiations" with the tribes -- which in the past have responded with violence to efforts to enforce the law.
Paterson in January finally got around to "instructing" his Tax Department to issue regulations to collect the tax; so far, nothing.
And now?
Unsurprisingly, yesterday's language, passed as part of an emergency budget extender, authorizes Paterson to continue talks with the tribes -- and even to abrogate the tax unilaterally if a deal comes as part of a federal court settlement.
Bonnie and Clyde should have been so lucky.
Most tellingly, the bill imposes the tax hike immediately but anticipates enforcement starting only on Sept. 1 -- giving smugglers a free summer (at least) to rake in the dough.
It's also unclear whether taxes as high as New York's are now -- $5.85 per pack, city and state -- even can be enforced.
Not that Gov. Paterson or the cowards in the Legislature care about any of that.
They get to budget $440 million in phantom revenue into their long-overdue budget, bringing it that much closer to "balance" without actually cutting spending -- the plan being to deal with the consequences after Election Day, probably with real tax hikes.
Shameful.
Fuck this bullshit, I'm not paying $12 a pack. I can drive to New Jersey, pay $7 at a savings of $50 a carton and save about $40 even after gas is factored in. While I'm there, I might as well fill up my tank with cheaper gas too!
The cost of a pack of cigs has skyrocketed over a decade
2000 $5
2002 $7.50
2008 $8.50
2009 $10
2010 $11.60
Last edited by JohnG@lt (2010-06-22 08:32:49)
"Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough."
-Frederick Bastiat
-Frederick Bastiat
