TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – The Cherokee Nation Attorney General’s Office is still negotiating with Oklahoma officials on a new tobacco compact, but a sticking point seems to be the state pushing to raise taxes to $1.03 per pack of cigarettes for tribal tobacco sales.
“The state of Oklahoma is looking for additional revenue streams to look out for the economic wellbeing of their state,” CN Attorney General Todd Hembree said. “We, on the other hand, are looking out for the economic interest of our Nation, and those interests coincide with Cherokee tobacco retailers that employ tribal citizens, and also a revenue stream of our own. What we have are two sovereigns that are looking to ensure that their governments, that their interests, are protected.”
Gov. Mary Fallin in 2012 notified all state tribes that their respective compacts, which give tribes the ability to sell tobacco outside their respective nations, would expire on June 30, 2013, and would have to renegotiate terms. Although the CN’s five-year tobacco compact with the state expired on June 30, the state granted the Nation and other tribes a 90-day extension to negotiate.
“We are looking forward to aggressively promoting our interest and the interest of our retailers with the state of Oklahoma,” Hembree said.
Because the CN and other tribes are sovereign entities they cannot be taxed by the state. Instead they remit payments in lieu of taxes to the state via wholesalers.
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