Poll shows near split on cigarette taxes

Taxation of cigarette sales on Native American reservations is an issue on which voters appear to be almost evenly split.

That may be a sign that the perennial issue simply isn't that important to them, said pollster Larry Harris, principal of Mason Dixon Polling & Research of Washington, D.C. Issues such as the state of the economy and jobs reveal greater attachment, he suggested.

Among respondents in the Voice of the Voter poll, 46 percent support the state's efforts to collect taxes on reservation sales of cigarettes to non-Native Americans, while 50 percent said they oppose it and 4 percent were undecided.

At first glance, those results suggest there's been a shift in thought. In the 2010 Voice of the Voter poll, 53 percent of voters polled supported the state's efforts, just 40 percent opposed them, and 7 percent were undecided.

But Harris said when the poll's margin for error of 4.5 percent is taken into account, the opinion shift is really minimal.

"You wouldn't say there's been a whipsaw in political opinion. It was never overwhelmingly supported nor is it now overwhelmingly opposed," Harris said. "It's not a top-of-mind issue with folks."

Indeed, among a handful of poll participants queried about the issue, several were unaware of or dismissive of details such as federal treaties with native Nations that would seem to prohibit or at least hinder the state's ability to collect taxes.

"I want to help the Indians but I also think we need their tax money," said Dolores Sibs, a retired teacher and Greece resident who described herself as "over 70."

"This is new times now and you have to go with the situations of the times," Sibs said. "There's a lot of these grandfather clauses that have to be changed."