The poker game begins

Sullivan County Legislators are split on five-casino deal

By DAVID HULSE

MONTICELLO, NY — There are no casinos yet, but a high-stakes poker game that will impact the future of Indian casinos in Sullivan County has begun.

Governor George Pataki’s Indian gaming advisor Greg Allen dealt the first cards earlier this month when he advised county legislators that winning the approval of Congress and the Secretary of Interior for one or more casinos would likely require a deal combining land settlements.

Governor Pataki recently concluded settlements of long-standing Cayuga and Oneida land claims and added Catskill casinos to the conditions of those settlements. In doing so, Pataki increased the number of state authorizations for Indian casinos in the Catskills from the three he endorsed in 2001 to five. The settlements would relieve the state of hundreds of millions of dollars in monetary settlement exposure.

Including his existing agreement with the St. Regis Mohawks, Pataki rolled the whole deal into one new piece of proposed federal legislation which he hopes Congress will address in February.

“They want to settle it all at once,” said Legislator Jonathan Rouis. “Allen made a compelling argument for the state’s concerns. … But the state’s concerns and ours may be two different things,” he added.

Rouis is one of five officially undecided county legislators on the question of endorsing the Pataki plan. He said Sullivan officials will soon be looking to negotiate those differences with the state. “We intend to open a dialogue in the near term,” he said.

Legislator Ron Hiatt is among the undecided. “It’s a question of understanding what’s in it for us. How are the state and other parties willing to extend themselves?” he said.

“We know of problems and we’ve heard assurances, but the questions are not black and white. It’s not that kind of issue,” he said.

Hiatt, an attorney, said he is willing to explore these differences, but he’s not looking forward to what he anticipates as difficult negotiations. “This makes us look back fondly on the landfill [controversy],” he said by comparison.

Undecided Legislator Jodi Goodman sees that negotiation as the turning point for the question. She called it a poker game.

“The governor needs to add our school issues (to the discussion). Fifteen million dollars is not enough. We need more from the state so we could all feel secure that we will benefit,” she said.

Undecided Legislator Leni Binder agreed with Goodman. A past supporter of gaming, she said her support was always predicated on “certain conditions,” largely involving educational funding. “I could not vote today without knowing the answers to these questions.

She admitted having problems with the extension of casinos to five. “My support was never a blanket approval. I’m comfortable with up to three,” she said.

Colleagues Greg Goldstein and Sam Wohl don’t have these reservations. Goldstein, who also serves as the county’s Republican Party Chair, has supported gaming since the old Board of Supervisors first considered an Oneida casino at Monticello Raceway. He’s not changing his mind now. “Did you think I was going to wimp out?” he asked.

Wohl is also ready to vote for five because he does not see a significant impact in the increase. “We’re going to have three. We might as well have five. It’s the same traffic whether it’s five or seven or twenty,” he said.

He also does not see any likelihood that Sullivan County will be politically able to resist the state’s pressure to get the deal done. “The state wants this to float uphill,” he said.

On the other side of the issue, Legislator Kathy LaBuda said flatly, “If it’s five or none, it’s going to be none.”

LaBuda said Sullivan has issues that haven’t been addressed: “a jail, a landfill, schools, infrastructure. Nobody has answered these questions.”

Legislator and Chair Chris Cunningham has often been the sole voice opposing gaming in past. “I haven’t changed my mind in eight years,” he said adding, “I’m willing to listen to the arguments, but nobody’s changed my mind yet.”

Legislator Rodney Gaebel said there was room for compromise. “I didn’t understand Allen as saying zero or five,” he said

But the last of the “undecideds” said that if the state can’t get all the land claims settled, “they’re back at square-one.”

Gaebel, who has supported two casinos in the past said, “Sullivan County needs to search its soul and decide for ourselves how many are needed and the state has to find another location.”

Still he admitted, “I haven’t heard any interest expressed by anyone else.”