Help us fight to keep your tax dollars and stop the steal!

Dear Fellow New Yorkers,

As concerned tax-payers ourselves, we at New York Up In Smoke have four very important questions for you:

• Would you mind losing 2 billion New York state tax-dollars every year in exchange for cheap, unregulated cigarettes?
• Would you also look the other way,  while lawfully due taxes go unpaid, and would you mind if those cigarettes were sold freely to minors?
• Would you prefer 4-dollar per pack cigarettes to 2-billion dollars for our cash-strapped hospitals, law enforcement, libraries and schools?
• Would it be okay with you if this illegal, black market  were used to further criminal enterprise and even terrorism?

If you answered yes to any of these questions then you are free to disagree with current NY and federal law. We hope you’ll re-consider when your own income taxes come due.

But if you answered no, then we welcome you to join the thousands of fed-up New Yorkers who are taking action to stop this illegal practice.

Native Americans in New York are not required to pay taxes on cigarettes that they buy on their reservations. This is part of federal law which respects their sovereignty and is widely regarded as a fair and respectful policy.

However, instead of selling tax-free cigarettes only to Native Americans, these reservations have created illegal cigarette wholesale and retail empires that allow millions of non-native smokers to avoid paying taxes. Taxes that provide for everything from health care to  fire departments to law enforcement and schools. Basically everything our New York State taxes pay for is short-changed  by $2 billion dollars every year due to cheap mail-order and internet cigarette sales.

And if that weren’t bad enough, this lucrative black market has also been utilized by Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda and organized crime right here in New York.

Allowing this crime to continue is disrespectful to tax payers, irresponsible and  dangerous.

If you want to help stop this criminal act cold in it’s tracks, here’s how you can help:

–  Sign our online petition to let your law makers know we want them to enforce the law and recover our state’s  lost tax revenue.

We have a simple solution to this problem. We just need your voices and support to get it done and clean up this mess….

The people of New York State have the most to lose from the illegal sale of tobacco.  It robs us of much-needed funds for health care, public safety and education.  We can only win this fight and recover the money lawfully due to our state if we stand together and make our voices heard.

You can help by signing our petition below. We encourage you to use this site as a resource and a medium for reaching out to your friends and family who are also paying a huge price everyday for  illegal cigarette smuggling.

* Use the check-box if you want to reveal only your city. Leave a comment and let us know what you think…