|
Thursday, March 5, 2009 7:10 PM EST
Paterson meets with SNI, area residents
By Christopher Michel
Special to the Olean Times Herald
|
| Gov. David Patterson talks with Jacquie Walker during a town hall-type meeting in Niagara Falls on Tuesday. Photo by Christopher Michel |
|
|
| |
|
NIAGARA FALLS - With New York state officials working to close the state’s $15.4 billion budget gap, Gov. David Paterson has been working to let the public know he is listening.
On Wednesday evening, Gov. Paterson participated in a town-hall style meeting to respond to the questions, concerns and ideas of area residents.
At the meeting, Gov. Paterson revealed he had met for the first time since December with officials from the Seneca Nation of Indians earlier in the day.
“We did meet with the Senecas today,” Gov. Paterson said. “We have not come to an agreement with them yet.”
The issues discussed between Gov. Paterson and nation officials stem from a December law the governor signed allowing the taxation of native cigarette sales. The law, originally slated to go into effect Feb. 13, had an injunction placed against it by state Supreme Court Justice Rose Sconiers.
Gov. Paterson said at Wednesday afternoon’s meeting, nation officials proposed to him several ways in which the state and the Seneca Nation could resolve the cigarette taxation issue. Although he offered few details of the meeting, Gov. Paterson said nation officials indicated actions they may take to “increase the opportunity for commerce off the nation’s territory.”
In explaining his position, Gov. Paterson said non-native-owned stores are hurt by tax-free native cigarette sales.
“Obviously businesses off of the reservations are at a competitive disadvantage,” Gov. Paterson said. “The cigarettes sold off of the reservations have taxes on them. The ones sold on the reservation do not. When I signed the legislation, they (the nation) were not pleased. They fought the legislation and the court said we cannot execute the law.”
Citing the economy as the reason for pushing native cigarette taxation legislation forward, Gov. Paterson said he hopes for a peaceful resolution to the matter.
“I think the economic climate we are in right now has exacerbated tensions over the issue. This problem has existed for 30 years,” he said. “We want to avoid any confrontation and I am happy to see the response from the Seneca Nation.”
Gov. Paterson commented further on the matter at a press conference after the town-hall meeting.
“We’re planning on collecting them (taxes), but we are restricted by the court on the procedure that we can take based on the legislation I signed,” Gov. Paterson said. “We want them (N.Y. Supreme Court) to unblock it (injunction) and cooperate with our desire to have equity in terms of small businesses.”
Despite seeming unsure of immediate results from the meeting, Gov. Paterson hopes to continue talks with Seneca officials.
“I have no idea whether they (the nation’s ideas) would work or not, but we will go back and talk to them,” he said.
Nation officials could not be reached by press time for comment.
In other discussion at Wednesday evening’s meeting, Gov. Paterson responded to complaints about the salaries of his staff employees, as well as his own.
As a gesture of sacrifice, Gov. Paterson said he would agree to a 10 percent pay cut. He also said he would rethink the raises he gave to current members of his staff.
“We’ll certainly reconsider it (pay increases),” Gov. Paterson said at a press conference after the meeting. “But, just to be fair, rather than hiring from the outside, we promoted from the inside. Maybe it would have been better to promote at a lower salary. I guess, symbolically, at a time like this, just the idea of anybody getting any more money than they used to is abhorrent to the public.”
As for future plans to return to the region and hold a similar meeting in the Southern Tier, Gov. Paterson said he has none, adding he had “already been to Binghamton a few weeks ago.”
 printer friendly version
 e-mail this story
Reader Comments
There are No comments posted. comments to this story.
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of bradfordera.com.
Submit a Comment
We encourage your feedback and dialog, all comments will be reviewed by our Web staff before appearing on the Web site.
|
