Skip to main content

The Cig Police....it's all about the money..

(This is an old story and I'm not sure where it came from...apparently Oklahoma is working along these lines with a long standing dispute with the Cherokee Nation. Something seriously wrong with this scene. Health care costs are going up along with everything else, check out the gas prices, and will continue to go up whether folks smoke or not - you need to regulate the Health Care COSTS - they're going to keep going up until you regulate the health care industry - and we were all told it was those nasty trial lawyers that were raising the costs of health care - now it's the smokers that are doing it - just another example of Congress sticking their head in the sand and blaming someone else for their short falls.)

Critics say the new “cigarette surveillance program” amounts to the use of “police state” tactics and wrongfully interferes with interstate commerce. ...

Starting today, state Department of Revenue agents will begin stopping Tennessee motorists spotted buying large quantities of Cigarettes in border states, then charging them with a crime and, in some cases, seizing their cars.

Critics say the new “cigarette surveillance program” amounts to the use of “police state” tactics and wrongfully interferes with interstate commerce. But state Revenue Commissioner Reagan Farr says his department is simply doing its job, enforcing a valid state law while protecting Tennessee retailers who properly pay state taxes.

Agents have already been watching out-of-state stores that sell Cigarettes near the Tennessee border to “get a feel where problem areas are,” Farr said.

While declining to be specific, the commissioner said “problem areas” are generally along interstate highways with exits near the Tennessee border.

The idea is for the monitoring agent to spot a person buying Cigarettes in volume at an out-of-state market, then departing in a vehicle with Tennessee license tags. Starting today, monitoring agents spotting such a suspect will call an arresting agent who will stop the car when it enters Tennessee, he said.

The agents will work “in roving teams at random times,” he said.

“This shows once again that Reagan Farr and the Department of Revenue are More interested in turning Tennessee into a police state than doing their job of collecting taxes,” said Drew Johnson, president of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research.

Farr said the program is partly an “education initiative” to make people aware of tobacco tax provisions in state law and a response to complaints from Tennessee tobacco retailers about “streams of Tennessee license plates crossing the border” from out-of-state retailers.

“I don’t think (Johnson) or anyone else wants to see the commissioner of revenue deciding which laws passed by the Tennessee Legislature to enforce and which not to enforce,” Farr said. “If that were the case, they (legislators) could just tell the commissioners ‘get me $11 billion’ wherever you think best.”

Tennessee’s cigarette tax went from 20 cents per pack to 62 cents per pack effective July 1. All eight states that border Tennessee have lower tax rates, meaning smokers can save up to 45 cents per pack — $4.50 for a 10-pack carton — by purchasing out of state.

The border states with the lowest cigarette taxes are Missouri with 17 cents and Mississippi at 18 cents. The highest is Arkansas with 59 cents.

Kentucky and Virginia both tax Cigarettes at 30 cents a pack, North Carolina at 35 cents, Georgia at 37 cents and Alabama at 42.5 cents.

Under state law, bringing More than two cartons of Cigarettes into the state without paying Tennessee taxes is a “Class B” misdemeanor, carrying punishment of up to six months in jail and/or a $500 fine. Bringing 25 or More cartons is a “Class E” felony, with minimum penalty of one year in prison and a maximum of six years plus a fine of up to $3,000.

In addition, the specific state statute dealing with untaxed Cigarettes provides that vehicles used to transport More than two cartons “are considered contraband and are subject to seizure,” says a Department of Revenue statement.

Farr said that agents have been instructed to seize any vehicle carrying More than 25 cartons of Cigarettes without Tennessee tax stamps. In cases where three to 24 cartons are involved, he said vehicle seizure is “at the officer’s discretion.”

Rep. Stacey Campfield, R-Knoxville, said he sees inconsistency in the enforcement program.

“This administration has been very willing to turn a blind eye to illegal aliens pouring into our state, yet, when a natural Tennessean brings a couple of cartons of smokes across the state line, they want to arrest them,” Campfield said.

He and Johnson both said the program appears to involve the state in interstate commerce, an area where the federal government is granted sole authority by the U.S. Constitution. Johnson said he hopes an arrested motorist will file a lawsuit against the program, and further predicted the state would lose.

Farr said the program does not run afoul of federal restrictions on state interference with interstate commerce.

“We’re not regulating the purchase of anything in another state,” he said. “We’re regulating the possession of contraband in Tennessee.”

Popular posts from this blog

Americanization of Native Americans

Americanization can refer to the policies of the United States government and public opinion that there is a standard set of cultural values that should be held in common by all citizens. Education was and is viewed as the primary method in the acculturation process. These opinions were harshly applied when it came to Americanization of Native Americans compared to immigrant populations who arrived with their "non-American traditions". The Americanization policies said that when indigenous people learned American customs and values they would soon merge tribal traditions with European-American culture and peacefully melt into the greater society. For example in the 1800s and early 1900s, traditional religious ceremonies were outlawed and it was mandatory for children to attend English speaking boarding schools where native languages and cultural traditions were forbidden. The Dawes Act of 1887 , which allotted tribal lands to individuals and resulted in an estimated total o

Indian Boarding Schools - the US Solution to the Indian Problem

American Indian Boarding Schools Haunt Many by Charla Bear This is the first in a two-part report. For the photos with this piece and the rest of the story: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16516865 May 13, 2008 Col. Richard H. Pratt founded the first of the off-reservation Native American boarding schools based on the philosophy that, according to a speech he made in 1892, "all the Indian there is in the race should be dead." CORBIS 'Kill the Indian...Save the Man' According to Col. Richard Pratt's speech in 1892: "A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one, and that high sanction of his destruction has been an enormous factor in promoting Indian massacres. In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man." From Need to 'National Tragedy' Early in the history of American Indian boarding schools, the

Cherokees and their California Connections

Sheriff Edward “Ned” Bushyhead http://sheriffmuseum.org/index.php?/Museum/comments/sheriff_edward_ned_bushyhead The San Diego Sheriff’s Department’s history is rich with men who were not only recognized as being excellent lawmen, but built often colorful reputations outside of law enforcement. From our first Sheriff, Agostin Harszthy, who moved north to start the California wine industry and who seemingly was eaten by an alligator, SDSO sheriffs were prominent figures throughout the history of the United States. San Diego County’s 12th sheriff, Edward “Ned” Wilkinson Bushyhead was no exception. Perhaps no character in all Cherokee history was more revered and respected by his people than Rev. Jesse Bushyhead, who was born in the old Cherokee Nation of southeastern Tennessee in September 1804. Called Unaduti by his Indian friends, he had two children with his first wife and nine children with his second wife, Eliza Wilkinson who was half Cherokee. The Bushyhead home was in a small Chero