Mohawks would fight cigarette tax

The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe is getting ready to show some muscle if the state goes through with its idea to collect taxes on tribally-sold cigarettes.

Gov. David A. Paterson has been floating the idea of collecting the taxes to help cover the state's massive budget deficit and recently asked the state attorney general to help assess the risk of violent demonstrations should the tax-collectors come knocking on American Indian reservation doors.

In a speech Tuesday at a state Senate public hearing in New York City, Chief James W. Ransom told the governor what kind of resistance may come his way.

"My response is that anytime someone attempts to infringe on the rights of Mohawks and the Haudenosaunee, we will defend ourselves," he said in the speech. "New York state should expect no less."

If the state moves to consult with the tribes and consider their rights, a "peaceful resolution of state concerns can be found," Mr. Ransom said.

The governor's chief legal counsel, Peter Kiernan, told a state Senate committee that a police "threat assessment" predicted that tribes based in Western New York would fiercely resist any attempt to interfere with their multimillion-dollar cigarette business.

The cost of enforcing order, he said, could run as much as $2 million per day — a figure based on the state's experiences when it tried to impose cigarette taxes on the reservations in 1992 and 1997.

Both of those efforts ended after members of the Seneca tribe set up blockades on state highways, set fires and in some cases brawled with troopers.

A small group of Senecas expressed their defiance Tuesday by lighting a fire near the state Thruway on the Cattaraugus reservation — an action that mirrored the protests in 1997. State Police Capt. Michael Nigrelli said traffic wasn't disrupted, and Seneca leaders assured state police the demonstration would remain peaceful.

Questioned by skeptical lawmakers, Mr. Kiernan declined to reveal how the state police came to the conclusion that there might be bloodshed, other than to say it was based on law enforcement "intelligence."

Laws allowing the state to collect the $2.75-per-pack tax on tribally-sold cigarettes have been on the books for years, but governors have balked at enforcing them. In the 1990s, then-Gov. George E. Pataki tried to collect the tax and was met with demonstrations that blocked traffic on the Thruway, fires and fights with state troopers.

Gov. Pataki gave way.

Gov. Paterson has pursued a dual track with the tribes, attempting to negotiate while also litigating the tax issue in state courts. Tribes in other states have signed revenue-sharing compacts with the states regarding taxation on cigarettes, but most of the largest New York tribes have rejected any such compromise.

Tribes argue that treaties dating back to the late 18th century protect them from taxation, including taxes on cigarettes.

In his testimony, Mr. Ransom compared the dispute between the state and tribal governments to the Boston Tea Party of 1773.

"New York state has taken over the role of the British and is trying to impose taxes within sovereign Mohawk and Haudenosaunee territories," Mr. Ransom said in his speech Tuesday before the Senate Committee on Investigations and Government Operations. "Exactly as in 1773, the governor and state Legislature are justifying the most recent tax legislation stating the need for the tax because of the tremendous budget deficit they are trying to address."

State Sen. Martin Golden, a Brooklyn Republican and a member of the Senate committee, said during Tuesday's hearing that the time for negotiating is over.

Wagging his finger at Indians in the audience, he said the U.S. victory over the British during the Revolutionary War gave the government the right to tax its citizens, and he suggested that the tribes benefited from state health, education and public works programs and should therefore be required to pay the same taxes.

"Is it too much to ask?" he said.

His comments were met with boos, and he was jeered again as he left the room.

Forcing tribes to pay the state cigarette tax would have an adverse effect on the north country economy, Mr. Ransom said. Thirty businesses on the reservation sell untaxed cigarettes and employ more than 400 people, many of whom would not have jobs without those revenues.

"The economic gains we make are because we will stand up for our rights," Mr. Ransom said. "That is what sovereignty is about."

The tribe is the fifth largest employer in the north country and third largest in St. Lawrence and Franklin counties, according to a recent tribally-commissioned economic impact study.

Tuesday's hearing also included testimony from town and county officials, anti-smoking advocates, convenience store associations and a tobacco industry consultant.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.