Albany, NY – Wine Sales in Groceries, Cigarette Tax Appear to be Dead

Albany, NY – The proposals to permit the sale of wine in grocery stores and hike the tax on cigarettes to help resolve the state’s 2010-11 budget deficit of more than $9 billion appear to be dead, officials said.

“I do not believe it is the sense, and I can only speak for my conference, although I hear it from the Senate as well, that most of those revenues if not all of those revenues are going to be passed by both houses of the Legislature,” Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said on Talk 1300-AM in Albany today.

“They believe that it’s time to give the public a break,” he added, following up on similar comments he made yesterday to reporters.

Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson, D-Brooklyn, told Gannett’s Albany Bureau on Wednesday that he will not support any new taxes and fees to close the state’s budget gap.

This is the second year Paterson has sought to allow grocery stores to sell wine. But the measure has been vigorously opposed by liquor stores, who say it would put them out of business.

Senate Deputy Majority Leader Jeff Klein, D-Bronx, agreed, saying “In the long term, we destroy mom-and-pop liquor stores through the state.”

Still, groups in support of the measure said it would help the state’s wineries and agricultural industry.

Paterson is seeking another $218 million is estimated in revenue from increasing the tax on cigarettes $1 a pack, from $2.75 a pack to $3.75 a pack —which would give New York the highest cigarette tax in the nation.