Brendan Scott of the New York Post reports - “A “frustrated” Gov. Paterson said yesterday that he was determined to push ahead with a plan to tax cigarettes sold on Indian reservations despite a freeze ordered by a state judge.

“We always obey our courts’ decisions,” Paterson said on WOR 710-AM.

“This is just a delay to an inevitable decision. We still believe our legal case is strong.”
A state appellate judge ordered the state yesterday to temporarily halt a plan to force cigarette wholesalers to pay taxes on all but a limited number of smokes sold to Indian reservations.

The $150 million collection push, which was supposed to take effect yesterday, is slated for a full hearing next Thursday before a five-judge appeals panel in Rochester.

The freeze came just a day after a federal judge granted two Indian tribes a two-week reprieve from the plan, which the tribes say will unjustly impact trade on their sovereign lands.”

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