Not all N.Y. taxes rejected by tribe

HOGANSBURG — Beer is expensive and cigarettes are cheap on the St. Regis Mohawk reservation for the same reason: New York state taxes.

On the reservation, tribe members pay the state tax money for every beer they buy, and they have for years. Conversely, they have been fighting against paying a similar tax on cigarettes for years.

"Right now, alcohol sales are taxed at the wholesale level and then they are taxed again by the tribe," member Raymond J. Cook said. "It's absolutely more expensive on the rez than off the rez."

A 12-pack of Bud Light on the reservation goes for $12.99. In Massena or Potsdam, it costs $10.99.

The tax system in place for beer is the same as the one proposed by Gov. David A. Paterson for cigarettes. Rather than imposing the tax at the retail level, the tax is paid by distributors who then pass the added cost on to retailers, who pass it on to customers.

The tribe has been paying the alcohol tax for several years.

Mr. Cook, who is the former spokesman of the Mohawk Anti-Tax Steering Committee, a group that was part of the effort to fight the cigarette tax more than a decade ago, attributes the alcohol tax to a lack of understanding and motivation on the part of the tribal government. Several members of previous councils oppose alcohol, he said, and so they did not fight the tax.

"The tribe has some problems with their policies and what issues they attack," Mr. Cook said. "They never understood and entered the conversation with the feds to become a wholesaler, which would allow them to impose their own tax and no state tax."

None of the tribe's three chiefs would comment on the issue. Tribal Director of Compliance Elliot Lazore also refused to comment.

The Mohawks have been part of an ongoing struggle against paying the state tax on cigarettes, which jumped to $4.35 over the summer, the highest in the nation. In the late 1990s, the state tried to collect the tax but protesters closed a miles-long stretch of the Thruway in western New York. State police barricades blocked off Akwesasne, preventing deliveries of tobacco products and fuel for weeks.

The state has instituted the cigarette tax at the wholesale level so law enforcement does not have to go onto tribal lands to collect the money. Tribes are citing their national sovereignty and centuries-old treaties to prove they are not liable for the tax. The Mohawks have filed a lawsuit in federal court to prevent the tax collection.

Despite all of the efforts to keep cigarettes tax-free, tribe members have been paying the state's taxes on beer for years. Reservation residents seem only now to be gaining awareness of the issue, according to Mr. Cook, who said he plans to bring it up at the next tribal meeting at 10 a.m. Sept. 11 at the community building.

"It's the best kept secret on the rez," he said. "This is something that falls directly onto the council: never tell the members they're paying New York state tax."