Posted on 09/27/2007 7:11:52 AM PDT by SmithL
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 commissioner ‘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.”
Police state.
Yeah, that about sums it up.
I bet there are plenty of illegal aliens in Tennersee, but they would rather arrest and harrass legal citizens. Our governent is getting pathetic.
Only the nazi’s wished they could have been this good. Maybe if they only had more time.— maybe they are.
People hate freedom.
Legal product.
Purchased legally in another state.
Proper taxes paid to the state in which the product was purchased.
Interstate Commerce Clause.
Will Tennessee arrest someone for bringing in out-of-state potato chips? Same arguments apply.
Well everyone has been saying if cigs are so bad the govt. should just outlaw them. I present to you step one. Now I hope some of the idiots that feel positive about cars being seized from folks with a bag of dope or a hooker inside will find themselves in the same situation and understand that the practice of seizing private property without due process, i.e. trial and conviction the sentencing is a gross abuse of power.
democrats and republicans have both sold us out. the citizens are a joke to them.
“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.”
Spot on!
This sound so wrong - and I don’t even smoke.
So if I live near the boarder and go there to get, oh I don’t know, say my meat? Does that make meat contraband too? Or if there is an outlet of some sort near a family member who lives in one state, and I use it, is anything I buy there contraband? Interstate commerce is interstate commerce. States should not have one rule for one legal product, and one rule for another.
What used to be called comparison shopping is evidently enough now, to get your car impounded.
Imagine that though, having your vehicle seized for possession of three cartons of cigarettes!
No correllation Kid, those are not legal products.
FYI, MA tried this in NH, but the NH folks put a stop to it.
That is involvement in interstate commerce.
“People hate freedom.”
That is a factual statement. There have been studies that show one of the things people fear most is choice. Many, (most?), people would rather do what they have to do without making choices.
Freedom = choice.
I can see American freedom erode on a daily basis. It’s going away fast, and most Americans could not care less.
They don’t appear to be giving the person an opportunity to pay the taxes to Tennessee, either.
How do they know the person was not going to pay the taxes?
Suppose you wanted to follow the law and pay the taxes, where is the opportunity to do so before you are arrested?
that sure is true. Wait until the find out how much this patrol will cost the taxpayers vs. what they collect. What a waste of money.
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