The state is taking steps toward collecting taxes later this year on cigarettes sold by Indian enterprises to non-Indians, a spokesman for Gov. David Paterson says.
Paterson said during his state budget address on Jan. 19 that he would move forward with an initiative to start collecting the taxes in about six months, after a public comment period.
That public comment period is now taking place, Paterson spokesman Morgan Hook said. After that, the state Department of Tax and Finance will review the comments, he said.
“And then we will enforce,” Hook said.
Paterson’s plan is to put regulations in place to enforce an existing law that calls for tobacco-product distributors to sell the products only if a tax is paid. Coupons would be provided to tribal leaders to allow Indians to purchase tax-free cigarettes.
On Dec. 15, 2008, Paterson stopped by Utica to sign that bill into law. A court injunction followed, and the state backed off the plan.
Hook said the state is appealing, while also attempting to start enforcing the law. When asked for a timeline for the enforcement, Hook said it should happen by the end of the year.
An aspect of the overall effort to collect the taxes had a day in court last week.
The state Court of Appeals heard arguments Thursday regarding Seneca and Cayuga counties’ attempts to enforce the state tax law, according to Madison County Attorney S. John Campanie.
Campanie said Madison and Oneida counties are missing out on millions of dollars per year due to the lack of enforcement on the law.
“The time for equivocating is over,” Campanie said in a news release. “The state can and must take action to immediately collect these revenues to the benefit of New Yorkers statewide.”
Oneida Nation spokesman Mark Emery said in an e-mailed statement that the Oneidas already collect their own taxes for government programs and services for the Oneidas. If the state attempts to collect the tax, it would just result in “more costly litigation,” he said.
“The Nation continues to believe that government-to-government discussions are the best way for Indian nations and states to solve the complex issues confronting them, like the collection of cigarette taxes from non-Indians shopping at Indian-owned stores,” Emery said.
Best info and news about tobacco world!
Monday, March 29, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
Editorial: Govt’s Blind Eye to Smoking Hurts Indonesia's Youth
Adam Aliyyi is only 15 years old. He is a high school student, but he is already hooked on a deadly drug. Like millions of other young men and women in Indonesia, Adam is a smoker and he has been since he was 11.
It is crime that the government allows the cigarette industry free reign to target young people like Adam through advertising and sponsoring concerts and events at schools. As Adam freely acknowledges, he lit up because he saw his idols at such events doing the same and because cigarettes were handed out free.
Indonesia has one of the most lax regulations in the world when it comes to promoting cigarettes. Tobacco companies have become masters at targeting the young because they are easily influenced, and once hooked, they become lifelong customers.
A survey by the National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas PA) in 2007 revealed that almost half of teenagers polled had taken up smoking because of advertising. The study also found that tobacco companies had sponsored 1,350 youth-oriented events from January to October in 2007.
Not only are cigarettes harmful to our health and a exert a huge social cost on the nation, they are the doorway to hard drugs. This has been proven beyond a shadow of doubt as once children are addicted to cigarettes, they often move to harder drugs.
If we, as a nation, do not take a hard-line stance against cigarettes, we risk losing an entire generation to drugs. The entire world has moved against smoking. In most developed countries, tobacco advertising has been totally banned and cigarettes made prohibitively expensive.
In Indonesia, however, a child can buy cigarettes by the stick for as little as Rp 5,000 (54 cents).
There can be no arguments against banning cigarette ads and stopping the spread of this corrosive vice. The government has argued for years that moving against tobacco companies could affect the livelihoods of millions of farmers, and tax revenues would fall. But it has been proven that tobacco farmers would rather plant other crops when given a chance, and every year, the country spends more than Rp 100 trillion on tobacco-related health problems, three times more than the income the government earns from tobacco revenues.
We fully understand the reasoning behind Muhammadiyah’s fatwa last week declaring smoking haram, or forbidden, given the health risks. The government can no longer push off the decision to ban tobacco advertising and making it difficult and expensive for young people to buy cigarettes.
We must look beyond the short-term losses in tax revenue and look at the long-term health and future of the nation. It is unacceptable that in this day and age, when the health and social risks of smoking have been fully proven, we continue to allow our young to expose themselves to his deadly killer.
It is crime that the government allows the cigarette industry free reign to target young people like Adam through advertising and sponsoring concerts and events at schools. As Adam freely acknowledges, he lit up because he saw his idols at such events doing the same and because cigarettes were handed out free.
Indonesia has one of the most lax regulations in the world when it comes to promoting cigarettes. Tobacco companies have become masters at targeting the young because they are easily influenced, and once hooked, they become lifelong customers.
A survey by the National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas PA) in 2007 revealed that almost half of teenagers polled had taken up smoking because of advertising. The study also found that tobacco companies had sponsored 1,350 youth-oriented events from January to October in 2007.
Not only are cigarettes harmful to our health and a exert a huge social cost on the nation, they are the doorway to hard drugs. This has been proven beyond a shadow of doubt as once children are addicted to cigarettes, they often move to harder drugs.
If we, as a nation, do not take a hard-line stance against cigarettes, we risk losing an entire generation to drugs. The entire world has moved against smoking. In most developed countries, tobacco advertising has been totally banned and cigarettes made prohibitively expensive.
In Indonesia, however, a child can buy cigarettes by the stick for as little as Rp 5,000 (54 cents).
There can be no arguments against banning cigarette ads and stopping the spread of this corrosive vice. The government has argued for years that moving against tobacco companies could affect the livelihoods of millions of farmers, and tax revenues would fall. But it has been proven that tobacco farmers would rather plant other crops when given a chance, and every year, the country spends more than Rp 100 trillion on tobacco-related health problems, three times more than the income the government earns from tobacco revenues.
We fully understand the reasoning behind Muhammadiyah’s fatwa last week declaring smoking haram, or forbidden, given the health risks. The government can no longer push off the decision to ban tobacco advertising and making it difficult and expensive for young people to buy cigarettes.
We must look beyond the short-term losses in tax revenue and look at the long-term health and future of the nation. It is unacceptable that in this day and age, when the health and social risks of smoking have been fully proven, we continue to allow our young to expose themselves to his deadly killer.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Prisoner slips from Texas unit to get cigarettes
A convicted burglar slipped out of his prison unit to buy cigarettes, then returned unnoticed a short time later, authorities said, leading to a contraband search and further criticism of Texas prison security.
"It might be funny if it weren't so absurd," said state Sen. John Whitmire of Houston, chairman of a committee that oversees the prison system. "People shopping at a Walmart shouldn't have to worry that the person standing next to them in line is supposed to be in a prison."
Policies regarding trusties and how they are supervised are being reviewed, prison system spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said.
Authorities at the Central Unit in Sugar Land used security video from a Walmart to confirm that Skyler Steddum, 19, was at the store. Steddum returned unnoticed to the fenceless trusty unit, the Austin American-Statesman reported Tuesday.
The Central Unit is now undergoing a search for contraband, including cigarettes, prison officials say. Its camp, outside the main prison yard, houses about 300 minimum-security convicts.
John Moriarty, inspector general for the Department of Criminal Justice, says Steddum slipped out on Feb. 23. Investigators did not learn of his quick trip, allegedly one of dozens made by Steddum in recent months, until Friday night when another inmate snitched on him.
"He bought smokeless tobacco and cigarettes. I don't know how much," Moriarity said.
Steddum is serving four years for home burglary and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle in Nueces County.
It was the latest security breach in Texas prisons since officials promised improved security in late 2008, after a death row convict used a smuggled cell phone to make threatening calls to Whitmire.
"The fact that Walmart has better security cameras than our prisons, well, this whole situation begs a whole lot of questions," the senator said.
"It might be funny if it weren't so absurd," said state Sen. John Whitmire of Houston, chairman of a committee that oversees the prison system. "People shopping at a Walmart shouldn't have to worry that the person standing next to them in line is supposed to be in a prison."
Policies regarding trusties and how they are supervised are being reviewed, prison system spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said.
Authorities at the Central Unit in Sugar Land used security video from a Walmart to confirm that Skyler Steddum, 19, was at the store. Steddum returned unnoticed to the fenceless trusty unit, the Austin American-Statesman reported Tuesday.
The Central Unit is now undergoing a search for contraband, including cigarettes, prison officials say. Its camp, outside the main prison yard, houses about 300 minimum-security convicts.
John Moriarty, inspector general for the Department of Criminal Justice, says Steddum slipped out on Feb. 23. Investigators did not learn of his quick trip, allegedly one of dozens made by Steddum in recent months, until Friday night when another inmate snitched on him.
"He bought smokeless tobacco and cigarettes. I don't know how much," Moriarity said.
Steddum is serving four years for home burglary and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle in Nueces County.
It was the latest security breach in Texas prisons since officials promised improved security in late 2008, after a death row convict used a smuggled cell phone to make threatening calls to Whitmire.
"The fact that Walmart has better security cameras than our prisons, well, this whole situation begs a whole lot of questions," the senator said.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Tobacco smuggler spared jail
A SMUGGLER who crammed almost 1,000lbs of hand-rolling tobacco and 28,000 cigarettes into a people-carrier has been spared jail.
Officers from HM Revenue & Customs found the vehicle's roof-box filled with cigarettes and tobacco was hidden under blankets when Karl Hansen was stopped at Poole Ferry Port, Dorset.
The 47-year-old was given a six-months prison sentence, which was suspended for two years, when he appeared at Bournemouth Crown Court.
The tiler was stopped by customs officers on October 3 last year as he drove a Chrysler Grand Voyager into Dorset after arriving from Cherbourg, France.
Hansen, of Kennedy Gardens, Billingham, pleaded guilty to evading around £71,000 in excise duty.
He was also given a three-month curfew between the hours of 9pm and 7am. The judge also ordered that the vehicle be forfeited under a deprivation order and awarded £250 costs.
The Recorder, Mr Francis Abbott, warned Hansen he would be sent to prison if he did it again.
He said: "If the cigarettes had been allowed through, the Government would be short-changed and the money has to come out of everyone else's pockets."
Officers from HM Revenue & Customs found the vehicle's roof-box filled with cigarettes and tobacco was hidden under blankets when Karl Hansen was stopped at Poole Ferry Port, Dorset.
The 47-year-old was given a six-months prison sentence, which was suspended for two years, when he appeared at Bournemouth Crown Court.
The tiler was stopped by customs officers on October 3 last year as he drove a Chrysler Grand Voyager into Dorset after arriving from Cherbourg, France.
Hansen, of Kennedy Gardens, Billingham, pleaded guilty to evading around £71,000 in excise duty.
He was also given a three-month curfew between the hours of 9pm and 7am. The judge also ordered that the vehicle be forfeited under a deprivation order and awarded £250 costs.
The Recorder, Mr Francis Abbott, warned Hansen he would be sent to prison if he did it again.
He said: "If the cigarettes had been allowed through, the Government would be short-changed and the money has to come out of everyone else's pockets."
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