STOOPID is as STOOPID does. Why do they always want to increase taxes? Or collect taxes from the Indians? Get a clue, lower the taxes in New York to be more competitive with the Reservations and that will drive up tax collections. People are heading to the reservations in droves to save on not just cig taxes but gasoline taxes.

TAXING INDIAN BUTTS - New York Post
THE MTA says it’s broke and needs to raise fares. Not so fast.
TO EASE THE MTA BUDGET BLUES

In the private sector, the answer to every cash flow challenge isn’t to raise prices. That’s usually the last resort - companies facing budget deficits start by trimming their own spending. So should government agencies.

Ten months ago, with the economy showing signs of weakening, city agencies were directed to trim their budgets by 5 percent. They did - producing $1.1 billion in savings in city funds. The MTA should find similar efficiencies.

In a $10 billion budget, any good manager should be able to find cost efficiencies and other savings without diminishing services. You can always do more with less, as New York City government has proven.

Yes, the MTA says it has already cut its budget as far as it can. We know they can do more.

After trimming their budgets, companies also work to develop new revenue streams. Congestion pricing would have been a major source of new revenue for the MTA, and also would have helped close its budget deficits by increasing ridership. But that was yesterday’s debate (and perhaps tomorrow’s). Today, the question is: If not congestion pricing, what?

There are no easy answers. A blue-ribbon commission headed by former MTA chief Dick Ravitch is working to identify real solutions to the agency’s perennial fiscal woes, rather than the usual stop-gap quick fixes. The MTA should await its recommendations - due in November - before moving ahead with any fare hike.

We’re hopeful that the Ravitch commission will develop ideas for innovative and long-term funding streams. In the meantime, here’s one idea we hope that state leaders will consider: Start collecting tobacco taxes on the state’s Indian reservations - and dedicate a portion of that revenue to the MTA.

For years, the state has refused to collect taxes on cigarettes sold to non-residents of Indian reservations - despite a 1994 US Supreme Court ruling that states have the right to collect these taxes.

Failure to collect the tax not only hurts public health, it hurts the rest of the state’s small businesses, who must sell cigarettes at far higher prices. Worse, there’s reason to believe that tobacco smugglers are funneling profits from Indian reservation sales to terrorist organizations overseas.

For all of these reasons - public health, economic fairness and national security - it’s time to start collecting the tax, which could total an estimated $800 million or more this year, enough to plug the MTA’s current deficit. more–>