Mike Bloomberg hates smoking. We can all agree on that. And he really hates when people find ways around the sky-high cigarette taxes found in his fair metropolis. In his latest move to prove just how much he hates bootleg butts, Bloomie has gone and sued a Washington-based cigarette manufacturer, King Mountain Tobacco, for shipping unstamped smokes into the city and state. Yay?
The suit makes use of the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking act (PACT), which governs sales in which consumers and sellers aren't face to face and requires that the seller assure that all taxes have been paid prior to shipment. The city says that King Mountain was sending its smokes here without paying its dues. The manufacturer, for its part, claims to be acting lawfully and that the city and state are not respecting their tribal rights.
"It has nothing to do with King Mountain Tobacco," King Mountain's Kamiakin Wheeler told the Yakima Herald. "Everything lies between the retailer and the state—not us." The city isn't recognizing their trading rights protected under their tribe's treaty with the federal government, he says. The state should have no say in this, he says, as the tobacco is grown and turned into cigarettes on tribal land. "Their argument really has no grounds," he said. "We have the right to freely travel and trade under our treaty."
Angry smokers pissed at losing another cheap option, can at least look on the bright side though: NYC's smoking-related deaths are down.
