By Staff Reporter
LOCKPORT — Niagara County lawmakers want Albany to put Niagara Falls’ share of Seneca casino money in writing before any new gaming compact is approved.
The County Legislature on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution urging Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers to pair any new compact with the Seneca Nation with an amendment to the state finance law that governs how slot revenue is passed on to local governments, the Niagara Gazette reported.
The measure asks the state to amend Section 99-h of the State Finance Law to explicitly require that the local share sent to Niagara Falls from Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino stay at 25% of the state’s share, and to keep Buffalo’s percentage at the same level, according to the Gazette. It opposes any “provision, formula or interpretation” that would let revenue from the Nation’s three casinos be “pooled or combined” when local shares are calculated, and calls for “statutory protections” in any agreement setting up a new compact.
“Shortchange Niagara Falls”
The lead sponsor, Legislator Chris McKimmie, R-Niagara Falls and the Town of Niagara, argued that pooling would hurt the Falls because Seneca Niagara is the biggest earner of the three casinos, which also include Seneca Buffalo Creek in Buffalo and Seneca Allegany in Salamanca.
“The state’s current legislation is just another way for the state to shortchange Niagara Falls and Niagara County and funnel more money away from Niagara County and into the City of Buffalo,” Mr. McKimmie said, according to the Gazette. “I believe any of the revenue generated in Niagara Falls and in Niagara County should stay in Niagara County.”
The resolution has no legal force. It is a message to Albany from a county whose largest city has the most to lose.
What is actually on the table
The resolution’s premise may be overtaken by events. Under the 2002 compact, the Nation shared slot machine revenue with the state, and the state passed a share on to the three host cities. That compact expired in December 2023 and has been extended quarterly while the Nation and the state negotiate a new one, with revenue-sharing payments going into escrow in the meantime, Buffalo Toronto Public Media reported. The Chronicle reported Tuesday on what the 2023 agreement says should happen to that escrowed money.
Seneca Nation President J. Conrad Seneca said this month that a new deal would not include revenue sharing at all. “We negotiated an agreement in principle that, right now, contains no revenue sharing provision with New York State,” he said, BTPM reported Oct. 2. “We expect this agreement will be finalized and sent to the New York State Legislature sometime in the spring.”
If there is no state share, there would be nothing for the state to divide among the host cities, whatever the percentages in Section 99-h say.
President Seneca has said the Nation tried to protect the host cities at the table. “Throughout our prolonged negotiations, the Seneca Nation has consistently advocated to protect the cities of Buffalo, Niagara Falls and Salamanca to ensure that funding would continue to come to them under a new agreement,” he said, according to BTPM. “New York State told us that wasn’t any of our business.”
He also said the Nation had been willing to discuss a fair revenue share, but that the state would not offer market protections or room to grow in return.
The governor’s office disputes that any deal exists. “State officials have been engaged in productive discussions with the Seneca Nation on a new gaming compact that would be fair for all parties. There is currently no agreement and conversations are ongoing with stakeholders,” a spokesperson told BTPM. “Any public discussion of specific terms and details is premature.”
The stakes for the Falls
Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino has estimated the city could lose $11 million to $13 million a year if a new compact leaves out the host communities, the Gazette reported.
“If you think about the fact that the city’s budget is $100 million or so, and if you think about the fact that we have an amount in the budget [for casino revenue] that is almost 10%, you’re thinking about a substantial gap to fill,” Mr. Restaino told reporters Oct. 2, according to BTPM. He said then that he had not heard from the governor’s office about the negotiations.
Where it goes from here
A new compact would need the approval of the Seneca Nation’s council and the State Legislature, according to BTPM, and like other tribal-state gaming compacts it would also go to the U.S. Interior Department for review. Legislative approval gives Western New York’s delegation in Albany a vote on the outcome.
The fight is a reminder that the money in question is generated on Seneca land by a sovereign nation’s businesses. Whether the host cities keep getting a share, and in what form, depends on what the state is willing to offer the Nation in return. That could include direct agreements with the cities, which President Seneca has said the Nation argued for. The county’s resolution addresses only how Albany divides its own share. It does not answer that larger question.
The Chronicle has asked Mr. McKimmie, the governor’s office and the Seneca Nation for comment and will update this story.
Featured image: Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino in Niagara Falls, in a file photo. Photo by saychinqua1 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0; cropped.
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