Tuesday, 23 November 2010 01:13
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MONTICELLO — Countless failed casino schemes were dismissed and a new path to gambling was risked Monday as another Indian tribe signed another deal for a casino in Sullivan County.Before a crowd of 200 and beneath the bright lights of several TV cameras, Gov. David Paterson and the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians signed a compact for a $700 million casino in Bridgeville, off Route 17's Exit 107.Standing in the same Government Center room where, nearly 10 years ago, Gov. George Pataki signed a law allowing three Indian casinos in the Catskills, Paterson touted the thousands of jobs and billions of dollars this first casino would mean to the state and struggling Sullivan County, with one of the highest unemployment rates in New York.
"A catalyst for great economic development right here in (the Town of) Thompson and all of Sullivan County," said Paterson, flanked by Sen. Chuck Schumer, Rep. Maurice Hinchey, Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther, former Rep. Ben Gilman and other officials.Earlier on Monday, Paterson signed a deal with the Wisconsin-based tribe with New York roots that settled its land claim against the state in upstate Madison County in exchange for the right to build the casino on 330 acres overlooking the Neversink River.Schumer promised to again use his clout with the U.S. Department of the Interior to win ultimate approval for this latest casino application. He said the casino that would create 3,000 construction jobs and 500 permanent jobs means "the great days of the Catskills can return once again.""A royal flush and four-of-a-kind combined," he said.But while the officials touted the economic benefits of a casino built by the developers of Mohegan Sun in Connecticut — including 25 percent of all slot revenues to the state and $15 million in annual mitigation payments to Sullivan — they all admitted that the Stockbridge-Munsee casino must yet overcome its highest hurdle: approval by the Department of the Interior. It's an approval that has eluded the other tribe to ink a Sullivan casino deal with the state, the St. Regis Mohawks. They signed a compact with then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer in 2007."You've heard this song before," said Paterson, in the room where Sullivan legislators once approved another kind of casino deal — Pataki's ill-fated 2004 proposal for five Indian casinos in the Catskills, one of which was for the Stockbridge-Munsee.This time, the tribe is using a relatively new route for approval of a casino that isn't built on a tribe's reservation. Instead of the so-called two-part determination that hinges solely on whether an off-reservation casino is in the best interests of the tribe and isn't detrimental to the surrounding community, the Stockbridge-Munsee will try a method that's rarely, if ever, been used — settlement of a dispute, in this case a land claim, without congressional approval.Along with lawsuits from environmental groups and challenges from New York tribes who question the local connections of the Wisconsin-based Stockbridge-Munsee, this is why this latest casino attempt is far from a sure thing.Even Schumer, who's been working for a Sullivan casino for years and was on the phone with the Department of the Interior Monday, acknowledged that."But you've got to keep trying," he
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