Dances With Schnorers

In today's Newsday the paper is reporting on the counterattack being launched by a pair of Long Island Indian tribes against the Alliance's effort (as well as a lawsuit filed by Gristedes), to get the state to enforce its own tax laws. The tribes are arguing that the tax "removes the incentive" for people to shop at their stores.

This incentive, as the Alliance's Richard Lipsky told Newsday, is in fact the greater proportion of the cost of a pack of cigarettes, and the sale of these smokes in NYC has contributed to the loss of over $250 million a year in business for city stores. If the tribes need the money than they should find ways to do business that don't unfairly rig the playing field against struggling small store owners.