February 20, 2007
Spitzer Backs Plan for Indian Casino in Catskills By CHARLES V. BAGLI
Gov. Eliot Spitzer has approved plans for a $600 million Las Vegas-style casino in the Catskill Mountains for the St. Regis Mohawk tribe and agreed to lead the effort to gain federal approval. His decision is the biggest leap yet in a 30-year struggle to bring gambling to the faded resort area.
The governor signed a letter on Sunday concurring with an initial federal determination made in 2000 that the proposed casino at the Monticello Raceway would benefit the Mohawks and the residents of Sullivan County. He and the three governing chiefs of the Mohawks also signed a gambling compact that would provide the New York State government with up to 25 percent of the annual revenues from 3,500 slot machines at the casino, an amount estimated at more than $100 million a year.
Proponents contend that the casino would revive the economy of the old borscht belt, attracting six million visitors a year and generating 3,000 jobs and tens of millions of dollars in revenue. In a series of concessions by the tribe, the Mohawks have agreed to provide $20 million a year to the county and to Monticello to offset the impact of the casino and to collect and remit taxes from sales of liquor, cigarettes and other retail items at the casino.
But the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sullivan County Farm Bureau and several other groups filed a suit in federal court in Manhattan last week challenging the casino on environmental grounds. And the project still needs final approval by Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, the former governor of Idaho, who opposes Indian casinos on nonreservation land. The Mohawk casino would be built more than 400 miles from the tribe’s Akwesasne reservation, which straddles the Canadian border near Messena, N.Y.
Still, the Mohawks were optimistic about the project yesterday, and Governor Spitzer said he would lobby Mr. Kempthorne in person when he is in Washington next week for the national governors meeting.
Mr. Spitzer said he would urge the Interior Department to move quickly to take the land into trust on behalf of the Mohawks under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, as it has for three other tribes since then.
“I will do everything I can to encourage expeditious review and approval,” Mr. Spitzer said yesterday. “The objective here is economic development. One casino, at a minimum, is good for the economy, good for the region.”
The casino, first proposed in 1994, would be built on a 29-acre parcel next to the harness racing track, which already has 1,500 electronic gambling machines, including video poker. Governor Spitzer’s predecessor, George E. Pataki, long supported Indian casinos for the Catskills, but had not completed negotiations for the gambling compact when he left office.
Chief Lorraine M. White, one of three governing chiefs for the Mohawks, said she was elated by Mr. Spitzer’s decision. “It’s a strong indication of the governor’s commitment toward not only developing a relationship with the tribe, but in terms of rebuilding the upstate economy,” she said.
Anthony P. Cellini, supervisor of the Town of Thompson, which includes Monticello, was in New York City yesterday for the State Association of Towns annual meeting when he heard the news. “That’s great,” Mr. Cellini said. “This is the furthest anyone’s ever gotten. I think we’ll see an explosion of growth.”
The owners of the longtime harness track, Empire Resorts, plan to put the land into federal trust for the tribe. Empire Resorts, in turn, would build and manage the casino for the Mohawks for up to seven years, with 70 percent of the net revenues going to the tribe. “While casino gaming and entertainment has expanded and prospered in Atlantic City, Connecticut and now Pennsylvania, the Catskills was left behind,” said Charles Degliomini, a spokesman for Empire Resorts. “Now, thanks to Governor Spitzer, New York State finally gets a chance to put a shovel into the ground.”
Hotel owners and state officials have looked to gambling as the salvation of the Catskills, ever since the area’s tourist economy and 500 hotels and bungalow colonies began a slow, inexorable decline in the late 1960s. Governor Pataki touched off a land rush in and around Monticello in 1999 when he said he favored Indian casinos in former resort areas. Suddenly, well-connected developers sought out tribal partners and bought large swaths of land and shuttered hotels like the Concord. But little headway was made.
Progress at the track is a personal triumph for Robert Berman, a Sullivan County resident who first conceived of building an Indian casino at the raceway in 1994. He lost his partners, the Mohawks, in 2000 after they were lured away by a major gambling company. Six years later, Mr. Berman, who is a shareholder in Empire Resorts but no longer a company executive, lured the tribal leaders back to the raceway for what may be the last off-reservation casino.
“After 12 long years, the project conceived to revitalize a dying community will finally move forward at its rightful home, Monticello Raceway,” Mr. Berman said.
It remains to be seen whether other casinos would be built in the Catskills. The State Legislature authorized three Indian casinos there after the attack on the World Trade Center damaged the state’s and New York City’s economy. At one point, the Pataki administration supported five. But only the Mohawks had obtained preliminary federal approval.
There are now four Indian casinos in New York State, including the Oneida tribe’s Turning Stone casino in Verona and the Mohawks’ casino on the Akwesasne reservation. In the first 10 months of last year, the Seneca tribe’s two upstate casinos generated about $75 million in revenues for the state, according to the Racing and Wagering Board.
But the Catskills was always seen as the gambling prize, because it is closer to New York City than either Atlantic City or the two Connecticut casinos. Analysts have said that a major Catskill casino could generate $1 billion a year and put a significant dent in Atlantic City revenues.
Rosa Lee, a leader of Casino-Free Sullivan County, said yesterday that she remained unimpressed by Governor Spitzer’s actions. She said she was more concerned about traffic congestion, increased crime and the pressure of development.
“We don’t think casinos are the answer to our economic and development problems up here,” she said.
Richard Schrader, a spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council, which has filed a suit against the project, also expressed disappointment with the governor’s decision and the federal government’s environmental review, which he said was insufficient.
“We simply don’t know the likely impacts in increased traffic congestion, air quality deterioration and dangerous sprawl that a major development like this would have on the Catskills,” he said.
The Interior Department sent a letter to the Mohawks in December saying that it had approved the existing environmental review of the project. But the letter spent more time highlighting Mr. Kempthorne’s negative views of off-reservation casinos. Though they are permitted under the 1988 law, he contends that it was never meant to allow casinos so far from reservations.
It is not clear whether the secretary would have a legal justification for blocking the project, but he could at least delay a final decision.
The agreements reached over the weekend were delayed for weeks when state officials insisted on discussing the collection of cigarette taxes on the Mohawk reservation, a prickly issue for the tribe, which is regarded as a sovereign nation. The tribe has agreed to collect and remit taxes in Monticello. But on the reservation, it says the state should collect taxes from wholesalers who sell tobacco products to distributors there.
The two sides agreed to try to work out the issue.
“We are committed to entering good-faith negotiations toward a formal cigarette trade agreement,” Chief White said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/20/nyregion/20casino.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
