But not all governments are allowed to participate in this scheme. Take the sin-tax controversy between Washington state and the tribal nations that preceded it. Competition between governments is deemed unfair, improper and illegal by the rules that the state itself declares. Start with cigarettes. The Department of Revenue maintains that nearly 30 percent of the cigarettes consumed in this state are contraband.
Some tobacco comes across state lines in cars or trucks.
Or cartons of smokes are purchased in military stores or over the Internet. And some cigarettes are sold from reservation-based smoke shops. The normal border of government is a geographic one. Gov. Gary Locke has even proposed allowing tribes to sell cigarettes to nonIndians under a compact agreement with the state. To make that work, Locke suggested, the tribe would have to increase its reservation tax to equal the state tax.