ALBANY -- New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has some advice for Gov. David A. Paterson on how to collect taxes on Indian cigarette sales: Play cowboy versus Indian with real guns.

The billionaire mayor, in a New York radio interview Friday, recalled the 1997 confrontation between Indians and state troopers along the New York state Thruway the last time the state tried to collect the taxes.

"I think the story is that there were some tires burned in the middle of one of the upstate superhighways in New York ... and the Indians said, you know, 'We're going to shut down the roads if you don't let us continue to sell cigarettes without taxes," Bloomberg said.

"Now, why every governor, and I've said this to David Paterson, I said, you know, get yourself a cowboy hat and a shotgun. If there's ever a great video it's you standing in the middle of the New York State Thruway saying, you know, 'Read my lips: The law of the land is this and we're going to enforce the law,'" Bloomberg said on WOR radio.

The mayor, who has supported higher cigarette tax levels to encourage people to stop smoking, brushed aside Seneca claims that the collection efforts will cost jobs in the region. "Yea, the cigarettes are killing our people,'" Bloomberg said in response to the job argument.

The Republican mayor, citing an article in The Buffalo News this week about a legal attempt by Seneca business owners to beat back a new federal crackdown on mail order tobacco sales, said New York needs to collect the tax. The Legislature this summer authorized a new collection effort to begin Sept. 1, and the 2010 budget assumes $150 million in revenues by ending tax-free sales of cigarettes by Indian retailers to non-Indians.

"This is an outrage. If you and I have to pay taxes, everybody should have to pay taxes. And this is just a scam to get around the taxes," Bloomberg said.

The Seneca Nation was not amused at Bloomberg's cowboy and shotgun idea.

Seneca President Barry E. Snyder Sr. said Bloomberg has shown his tolerance of religious freedoms but not the sovereign rights of Indians. "It's precisely this kind of cavalier attitude that has led to the past breaking of treaties by various federal and state governments," Snyder said.

"As an elected leader sworn to uphold all laws of the land, does he feel he has the right to pick and choose which parts of the Constitution he favors because of his clearly biased beliefs," Snyder said, adding Bloomberg's comments were "reckless and insensitive."

A spokesman for Paterson, who is politically friendly with the mayor, sought to walk a diplomatic line. "While we certainly respect Mayor Bloomberg's opinion, the governor's approach to these issues will not change. This administration has a policy of litigation, negotiation and enforcement and it has been a successful policy so far," said spokesman Morgan Hook.

The Bloomberg comments came after the state Tax Department on Monday seized a truck and thousands of cartons of cigarettes owned by a Seneca tobacco merchant. The truck was heading between the Cattaraugus and Allegany reservations. A couple days later, the state backed down, and said it was returning the vehicle and cigarettes, though it insisted it had the legal right to confiscate the tax-free products.

Tensions are high among Seneca tobacco business owners, as they fight a new federal law cracking down on their lucrative mail order operations while the state is taking steps to implement its new collection law at the beginning of next month.

tprecious@buffnews.comnull