TRR photo by David Hulse County officials are pictured speaking to the media during last Thursday’s announcement of a new host-benefits package with the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians. From the right are legislative vice-chair Robert Kunis (D-8), chairman Rusty Pomeroy (D-3) and County Attorney Ira Cohen. (Click for larger image)

Another $15 million deal

By DAVID HULSE

MONTICELLO — There are no slot machines spinning yet, but with its second $15 million host-community package in the bag, Sullivan County is amassing a substantial interest in casino gambling.

Following a last-minute flurry of January 24 telephone calls between New York and the Wisconsin base of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians, county officials announced the financial deal, which includes the county’s needed support for a planned multi-million dollar casino. The casino will be located near Route 17’s exit 107, near Bridgeville, in the Town of Thompson.

The $15 million host-community benefit package essentially matches one negotiated earlier with the St. Regis Mohawks and Park Place Entertainment, who are developing a casino-hotel on Anawana Lake, also in Thompson. When announced last summer, the initial deal was nationally acclaimed as the best negotiated by any community hosting a Native American-operated casino.

Legislative chair Rusty Pomeroy (D-3) said the only substantive difference in the agreements was that Sullivan agreed to a Native American-operated convenience store on the property. However, Pomeroy said the Stockbridge-Munsees would not be undercutting competing businesses, as they will be collecting all state and federal taxes on gasoline and tobacco, despite their federally exempt status from those taxes.

The deal provides for quarterly payments to the county, which will act as the distributor of any other payments to affected town governments or school districts. Pomeroy said a commission might be selected to oversee how those payments are made.

As with the Mohawk deal, the Stockbridge-Munsees will be responsible for funding all infrastructure improvements needed to support the casino.

The Stockbridge-Munsees are partnered with Trading Cove Associates-New York, a South Africa-based financing and development group, which developed the Mohegan Sun casino resort in Connecticut. The tribe also has a bargaining chip with New York State, in that the casino deal could help settle an old land claim the tribe has against the state.

Pomeroy said Sullivan now has only to await the needed state and federal approvals before the developers break ground. “That’s always been the frustrating part of this, that so much of it is outside our control…We’re years away from any opening,” he added.

Sullivan currently has no other active negotiations underway with would-be casino developers, but Pomeroy estimated that as many as six tribes would come forward to propose plans. “I expect we’ll hear from them when they’re ready,” he said.