Buffalo Bills owner and hydrofracker Terry Pegula is worth more than $5.8 billion and is the proud owner of a new $75 million yacht.
The uncommon luxury has been riling New York taxpayers on social media this week, who learned they would be paying $850 million of the $1.4 billion costs of constructing a new stadium designated for his exclusive use.
That announcement comes the same week that Hochul froze all Seneca Nation bank accounts — gaming and non-gaming — in order to extort more than $560 million of disputed payments related to a 2002 gaming compact and exclusivity rights that were defrauded from the Seneca Nation.
Governor Kathy Hochul has endured public ridicule from both sides of the political aisle since the announcement, though it’s been rumored that Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins may insist that the stadium project is delayed until the next legislative session so that proper public engagement processes can take place.
Stewart-Cousins has said that she was ‘blindsided’ by Hochul on the stadium deal and that she is concerned that Delaware North — the employer of Hochul’s husband and chief competitor of the Seneca Gaming Corporation — will benefit from the deal in flagrant violation of state ethics and anti-corruption laws.
Stewart-Cousins may insist that the $560 million in extorted funds from the Seneca Nation are segregated from the State’s general fund budget into an escrow account until the dispute has been fully resolved by the Department of the Interior.
“It would be unfair and illegal to allow Hochul to spend the money she just extorted in the same budget that she is gifting it to her husband’s employer,” one critic says. “We need a full JCOPE investigation — at the very least.”
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