Two more Catskills casinos under discussion

Joel Stashenko

Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2004 | 9:04 a.m.

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Gov. George Pataki said Monday the state is negotiating with Indian tribes to put five Native American casinos in the Catskill Mountains, two more than are now authorized.

"We've authorized three in western New York. Certainly, the Catskills is an area that has been a historic resort community that has attracted millions of people from not just New York, but from across the country," Pataki said. "It's certainly something that I would consider."

The governor said revenues from Catskills gambling would be used for education. The state is facing a court challenge to improve education funding for New York City schools, with court-appointed referees estimating last week that the cost of compliance could be an additional $23 billion over the next five years.

A little more than a month after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, Pataki and the Legislature authorized up to six Native American casinos in the state, three in western New York and three in the Catskills. Two of the three western New York casinos have been established, with a dispute underway about whether to put the third in Buffalo or a suburb.

The Catskills casino have been held up amid squabbling among or between tribes, financing and other issues. Agreements have been reached between the Pataki administration and Cayuga Indian Nation of New York and the Seneca-Cayuga tribe of Oklahoma for the operation of two casinos, both in Monticello.

When negotiating over the 2001 gambling expansion, Pataki said Monday, he discussed putting up to five gambling operations in the Catskills. Because of their relative proximity to the metropolitan New York area, Catskills' casinos are considered to be potentially lucrative ventures for both developers and the state.

"I think five makes perfectly good sense," Pataki said Monday.

The leader of the Republican majority in the state Senate, Joseph Bruno, said his members want to see what the Republican governor can negotiate for a fourth and fifth Catskill casino.

"We are just going to wait and see what's in the best interests of the people of the Catskills and in New York state," Bruno said.

But state Sen. John Bonacic, a Republican from Sullivan County, said his home county is no longer desperate for jobs and residents in Sullivan and other Catskills counties should get a chance to vote on whether they want one of the two new casinos. He said the three casinos already authorized should be up and operating before more are set up.

"We still need jobs, but they need to be higher paying jobs," Bonacic said. "I am not prepared to let the Catskills live and die economically on a roll of the dice, especially when we do not know if the dice are loaded."

The 2001 gambling expansion also authorized putting slot machine-like video gambling terminals in most of the state's race tracks and New York's entry into the multistate Mega Millions lottery game.

The Legislature would have to authorize the two additional Catskills casinos Pataki discussed Monday, as would the federal Interior Department.