Family Life

12.15.08 | Alan Gustafson

New York Governor David Paterson goes public on Tuesday with his budget blueprint. It calls for new taxes on clothing and gasoline, as well as a so-called "obesity tax" on all non-diet sodas. The governor says he will not raise property taxes, but steep cuts are necessary in health-care and education. New York is facing a twelve billion dollar deficit next year.

Paterson is also expected to sign a bill that would tax cigarettes on Indian reservations. While that would help the state with its deficit, the Seneca Nation of Indians is opposed to the measure. It says collecting taxes on cigarettes would go against treaties signed over two hundred years ago. State officials tried to pass similar legislation in 1995, but tribes in Western New York protested when the state tried to enforce the tax.