Tobacco.org

• Seneca educates lawmakers on treaty rights, tobacco economy  

State lawmakers at a public hearing heard claims of "lost" tax revenues ranging from tens of millions to billions of dollars from untaxed cigarette sales on Indian reservations.

While none of the witnesses backed up their claims with substantive evidence, the Seneca Nation of Indians presented officials with a three-inch thick document on its treaty rights, legal history, and an economic study by a Harvard economist that pinpointed how - and how much - the nation's tobacco-based economy benefits the state.

The hearing, which was chaired by Sen. Craig Johnson, D-N.Y., was an all day - and sometimes heated - event at Manhattan Community College Oct. 27. The aim was to investigate why the state has failed in its attempts to collect cigarette taxes from reservation cigarette sales to non-Natives.

J.C. Seneca, a Seneca Nation tribal councilor, testifying on behalf of the nation, addressed that question at the beginning of his testimony.

"The answer to that question, put simply, is that your government has no authority to do so,

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