Cigarette Taxes = Genocide
That was the gist of many of the signs at the Senecas’ rally in Niagara Square today. The imposition of state sales taxes on sales of cigarettes to non-Indians on Seneca territory is similar to genocide.
There was one placard depicting Governor Spitzer’s face with a Hitler mustache added with a Sharpie to make some sort of political point about a hard pack of Marlboro Lights.
I don’t begrudge the Senecas making a political point, or arguing that the sales tax collection is illegal or immoral - that’s fine and dandy. Any regular reader of mine will know that I take exception to the use of Nazi symbolism to make a contemporary political point that has nothing to do with Naziism. For instance, calling someone a “Hitler” (especially, ironically, a Jewish governor), because of his stance on, of all things, cigarette taxes.
Memo to Senecas: The Jews had a lot worse problems than taxes on vice, and cheap theatrics such as that merely cheapen your argument and the memory of the Holocaust.
Mike Hudson Says:March 13th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
alan….i, like you, find the use of nazi symbolism and characrterizations offensive and unhelpful. the senecas, however, have something of a point in that they and all native americans WERE actually the victims of genocide, and on a far more extensive scale than that suffered by the jews under the third reich.
as they were shunted aside during buffalo’s prosperous years, they created an economy of their own, one based on tobacco then gasolene and now gambling. and what happens? the verysame new york state government that put them on reservations now wants their sovereign nation to collect its taxes. once again, the crooks in albany want a piece of the action.
the best part about the senecas is that they don’t give a shit what anybody thinks. they don’t care whether you object to their rhetoric or whether the governor demands they do something. it is well within their power to close down the thruway, the southern tier expressway and downtown niagra falls. and they’ll do it, if pushed far enough.
Terry Says:March 13th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
Taxes on vice? BP, are you wrong here? I seem to read that NYS seeks to collect tax on gasoline sales…is that a vice too? If the tax is purely on cigarettes, then I stand corrected
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee……
Leo Says:March 13th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
Why is it that the Indians only want to be a “sovereign nation” when it fits them? If they are truly sovereign, why does NYS or the town have to snow plow their roads, pave their roads, etc.? They don’t pay property taxes, so why do they get their highway’s maintained? In my property tax bill I just paid, it specifically outlines how much you pay for highway maintnance! Spitzer isn’t going to tax Indians who buy Indian products, only non Indians! As far as Indians being forced on reservations, that was almost 100 years ago! Indians have been able to live where ever they wanted for decades now, they just have to pay taxes(like every body else) if they choose to live off of a reservation! All this Indian hypocracy is getting old!
dougk Says:March 15th, 2007 at 10:30 am
the Seneca demonstrators need to tone down the rhetoric and think in simple business terms…the state wants to collect tax, ok, collect the tax and charge a fee (to the tobacco consumer or state)to do so…talk among yourselves!
Haterade Says:March 15th, 2007 at 11:18 am
The State has no right to tax the Native Americans, but they should be able to tax what the non -natives buy. I know many smokers who buy 10 cartons and smoke ‘em all in a week. Who is going to be paying for all their expensive smoking related healthcare ? The Indians ?