Host communities are supposed to get 25-percent of the state's share of Casino Revenue. Until the dispute is resolved, Porter says the Senecas want Governor David Paterson to let them make payments directly to cities such as Buffalo and Niagara Falls.
"We want to be able to pay the local governments so that they are not harmed by what is going on in Albany and that if we do so, we want to make sure that the Nation is not harmed by later on being held to a 100% payment," said Porter.
Porter says the dispute is not related to Paterson's attempt to collect taxes on cigarettes sold by Indian retailers. He says the Senecas notified the Governor's Office in January about the dispute but it took nine months to get a response.
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