Go Big on Cig Taxes: Paterson; Smokers Fume in Shutdown Showdown
ALBANY -- Gov. Paterson lit up the budget battle last night by announcing he would force lawmakers to approve a staggering $1.60-a-pack tax hike on cigarettes or risk a chaotic government shutdown.
The tactic will assuredly set up another showdown in the narrowly divided state Senate, where both parties have issued firm no-tax pledges as the fight for control rages in the shadow of the November elections.
The proposed tax represents a 60-cent increase over the plan floated by Paterson in February.
It would hike the state's total tax on smokes to $4.35 -- up nearly 60 percent.
That's on top of the $1.50 city tax and the $1.01 federal tax claim on each pack of cigarettes.
The average pack now costs about $10 in the Big Apple.
The governor would also jack up the tax, from 46 to 75 percent of wholesale cost, on other tobacco products.
"I'd like for him to take that tax and stick it!" said incensed smoker Deborah Reed, 56.
"They keep going after the smokers and that's wrong," she said.
Together, Paterson estimates the two new levies would bring in $290 million to help close an estimated $9.2 billion budget gap. He expects to collect another $150 million by cracking down on the sale of cigarettes on Indian reservations upstate and on Long Island.
The tribes have resisted state regulation of tobacco sales despite growing complaints about illegal cigarette trafficking and hundreds of millions of dollars in lost tax revenue annually.
Paterson's latest plan would use the state's authority to restrict the amount of tax-free cigarettes that can be sold on reservations, budget director Robert Megna said.
He added that Paterson plans to include the legislation in an emergency spending plan that lawmakers must pass Monday or risk a government shutdown.
Meanwhile, the governor also called on lawmakers to delay "for the foreseeable future" a $50 million skylight renovation project at the state Capitol.
The action, which would save the state an estimated $4 million this year, comes six months after The Post first revealed how Paterson had decided to go ahead with the project.
Bills delivered to the Legislature yesterday -- and quickly passed by the state Assembly -- would cut about $1 billion, restore free MetroCards to city students, institute $41 million in new legal fees and cut $302 million in aid to the city.
