Tribes celebrate cigarette-tax stay

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September 5, 2010

By ANDREA VanVALKENBURG Staff Writer The Press Republican Sun Sep 05, 2010, 07:32 AM EDT

AKWESASNE — The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe has been included in the temporary court-ordered stay for sales-tax collection for cigarettes sold on tribal territories.

After a series of recent court actions, a temporary stay was issued late last week for all Indian tribes in the state.

Initially, only the Seneca and Cayuga tribes were issued a stay as the tribal leaders take legal action against the state's mandate for tax collection on cigarettes sold on reservations.

Last week, the state was supposed to begin collecting $4.35 per pack on cigarette purchases made by non-Indians on the Akwesasne and Ganienkeh reservations.

Like other tribes, St. Regis Mohawks filed a lawsuit against the move and were granted the stay as the court action pends.

"The state schemes for implementing a tax collection system, namely the coupon system and the prior approval system, are fatally flawed," Tribal Chief Monica Jacobs said in a news release Friday.

"They place undue burdens on tribes and infringe on tribal sovereignty."

The Mohawks' federal lawsuit argues that state legislature cannot delegate the sovereign powers of the state to an administrative or executive authority of a foreign jurisdiction.

E-mail Andrea VanValkenburg at: avanvalkenburg @pressrepublican.com