02.21.07
Casino in the Catskills still facing roadblocks
Federal agency has questions about site
Yancey Roy/Albany bureau
ALBANY — Don't hold your breath, casino supporters.
Just because Gov. Eliot Spitzer and the St. Regis Mohawks reached a deal on opening the first casino in the Catskill Mountain region doesn't mean it's going to happen. The federal government must sign off on the pact and it has expressed concerns about sanctioning a gaming hall so far from the Mohawks' reservation.
In a December letter to the tribe, the U.S. Interior Department noted that the proposed site is in Monticello "over 450 miles from your reservation." Further, an agency official noted: "As we have discussed on several occasions, we share the concerns that many have expressed with off-reservation gaming and so-called 'reservation shopping.'"
Mohawk officials contend that Spitzer's backing could influence the federal government's decision — and become the tipping point that finally gets an Indian casino sited in the Catskills, more than five years after the Legislature authorized three casinos in the region. Also at stake are casino proposals from other tribes, especially the Stockbridge-Munsee band of Mohicans, who believe approval of the Mohawks casino would enhance their chances.
The Mohawks and Spitzer announced this week a pact that would sanction a casino at the Monticello Raceway in Sullivan County. The state would get up to 25 percent of the annual revenues of the 3,500 slot machines at the casino, a share that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars per year.
But there's a track record of casino agreements falling apart in New York. Most notably, previous Gov. George Pataki's deal with the Mohawks and four other tribes to build casinos in exchange for settling long-standing land-claim lawsuits was upended by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2005.
And the Mohawk deal still faces two hurdles: approval by the federal government and a lawsuit challenging the casino on environmental grounds.
In December, federal officials approved the tribe's environmental review of the project. But they also voiced serious concerns. The government would have to put the site, about 30 acres, "in trust" — effectively making it Indian land — to permit the deal.
James Cason, associate deputy secretary, noted that Congress has considered legislation that could significantly reduce the off-reservation options for tribes. .
"We anticipate changes to the rules that may result in fewer off-reservation properties being accepted into trust," Cason wrote. "In particular, we expect to consider a paradigm where the likelihood of accepting off-reservation land into trust decreases with the distance the subject parcel is from the tribe's established reservation or ancestral lands and the majority of tribal members. ... We wanted you to know that the statutory, regulatory and policy environment is changing."
New York's constitution bans casinos. But Native Americans can operate them on reservation lands. There are currently four Indian-run casinos in the state: Niagara Falls, Cattaraugus County, Oneida County and St. Lawrence County.
Yet tribal leaders are confident.
"Gov. Spitzer is very strongly behind this and is urging the Department of Interior" to approve the pact, said Leslie Logan, spokeswoman for the St. Regis Mohawks, who are based at the Akwesasne reservation in St. Lawrence County along the Canadian border and have operated a small casino there for years.
"Really, that is the thrust. We think (Spitzer) will carry some weight and move the process along," Logan said.
Meanwhile, the question remains as to whether the state will continue to pursue Catskill casino deals with other tribes. The Stockbridge-Munsees have a casino planned in Thompson, Sullivan County, have completed an environmental review and have lined up support from some local officials. The tribe claims the Catskills as part of their ancestral land.
Spitzer's aides didn't immediately return calls to comment. The leader of the Stockbridge-Munsees said that Spitzer's support for the Mohawks is not only a major step for them but also for eventually authorizing three casinos in the region, as the Legislature intended in 2001.
"We have met with the governor's staff," Stockbridge-Munsee president Bob Chicks said in a statement. "We look forward to working with them to right a century-old wrong done to our tribe, spur the economic revival of the Catskills and provide hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue to the State of New York."
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070221/NEWS01/702210342/1002/NEWS
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