Pataki dumps five casino proposal

ALBANY, NY — Capital-based media reported Friday that Governor George Pataki has decided to drop his legislative initiative for five Indian casinos in the Catskills and now plans to concentrate his support solely on new legislation to authorize the St. Regis Mohawk casino project at Kutshers Resort on Anawana Lake.

Pataki’s decision reportedly was based on new limitations on Indian land sovereignty raised in the recent US Supreme Court decision limiting the Oneida Nation’s efforts to expand their sovereign territory through fee purchases in the City of Sherill in upstate Madison County.

Pataki’s decision leaves the future in question for four other projects, the most developed of which include the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans'-Trading Cove initiative at Bridgeville; and the oldest of the projects, the Empire Resorts project at Monticello Raceway.

Empire’s more recent proposal with the Seneca-Cayugas at the former Concord Resort and plans for a Wisconsin Oneida casino in Mamakating would also lose gubernatorial support.

The five-casino plan, proposed late last year, was intended to settle multimillion dollar land-claim lawsuits that five tribes filed against the state. The proposal included granting the tribes land rights in the state as well as casinos.

The governor’s announcement to propose new legislation did not address the status of existing 2001 legislation endorsing three casinos in the region.