Questioning casino
‘host benefits’

By DAVID HULSE

MONTICELLO, NY — How did Sullivan County justify the numbers in casino host benefit agreements with the Mohawks and Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans? Legislators are now asking where those numbers came from and how the information was documented.

The Village of Monticello is threatening a lawsuit based on the disparity between $5 million benefits the Cayugas at Monticello Raceway are offering and the county’s holdout to match the existing $15 million agreements. County officials say they will not compromise on the host benefit and the village says the county is unfairly blocking its project.

Additionally, the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs has recently become fussier about project documentation after having a court ruling upset one of its approved casino projects.

Both these issues prompted a legislators’ discussion last Thursday about how the host benefit packages were documented.

The overriding outcome of the discussion was that the documentation was incomplete and the county has done a poor job of explaining exactly what is in these agreements.

Legislative Chair Leni Binder said on June 19 that the supporting data that the county used to calculate a host benefit, the amount to offset new casino-related county, town and school district costs, was never actually set to paper. She compared it to line items in your checkbook.

“It’s all there, but you can’t say at any given time how much you spent over the year,” she said.

Sullivan went through negotiations with the Mohawks and the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans, without ever compiling the data on paper. “Nobody ever asked?” queried Legislator Jodi Goodman.

“I’ve asked for it,” said Legislator Don Trotta.

“There was never a compilation of data,” said County Attorney Ira Cohen.

Legislator Rodney Gaebel said the process was not done in secret.

Perhaps the Indians did not ask for documentation because Binder said the county settled for about half the amount that was indicated, $15 million, instead of the $30 million in new impacts that Binder said the numbers supported. She didn’t say how that other $15 million would be raised.

Gerry Skoda, who compiled data for various appointed casino committees since 1995, will now put the data together on paper, and put it together quickly, Binder said. Skoda is to be paid $2,500 for his time, Binder said.

“Who said anything about paying Mr. Skoda?” asked Legislator Chris Cunningham.

After legislators review the Skoda data, they will consider hiring a super-analyst to review that data and any other material that has appeared since the previous county agreement with the Stockbridge-Munsees was signed in January of last year.

“Other people have been coming up with numbers…we don’t know what those numbers are going to be,” said Cohen, but he was confident that results would justify the county’s $15 million claim.

“How much is the super-analyst going cost?” Cunningham asked.

“Bend over,” Trotta replied, indicating the cost would be high.

Goodman said legislators were assuming that public was following the process, but “I haven’t met one person in the last week who understands it. We have to do a better job.”

Binder said the county isn’t responsible for misrepresentations in the press, but went on to agree that more information should be made available by press releases.

Noting that the discussion highlighted past errors, Legislator Kathy LaBuda, suggested the former chairman was not solely at fault.

“Let’s not just blame Rusty [Pomeroy]. We were all here,” she said.