Brandon Roth is a multimedia journalist for CNY Central.
An attorney for the Cayuga Indians says the nation may soon resume selling tax-free cigarettes at stores in Seneca and Cayuga counties. The Cayugas were forced to shut down their Lake Side Trading Post stores in Seneca Falls and Union Springs last November after sheriff's deputies from both Seneca and Cayuga county raided the stores and seized closed to 18,000 cartons of cigarettes. The District Attorney's Offices from both counties were pursuing tax evasion charges against the Cayugas for selling tax-free cigarettes on what the counties claim is non-reservation land. But a decision Wednesday by the State appellate court has changed those plans- at least for now. The court issued a preliminary injunction temporarily barring Cayuga and Seneca county from pursuing felony tax evasion charges against the Cayuga Indian Nation.
Dan French, attorney for the Cayugas says the nation is now considering re-opening those stores and asking for their seized cigarettes back.
" Based on this decision they may very well re-open those facilities," French says. The courts ruling is not popular with business owners in Seneca Falls like Mel Russo, who says the Cayuga Indian Nation should be treated like any other business. "It is not a reservation," he says. "They have no more right to sell cigarettes to anyone tax free than anyone else does." The appeal is scheduled to be heard in the state court in May, and a final decision is expected sometime in June.
