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tribe. Governor David Paterson, Senator Charles Schumer, Congressman Maurice Hinchey and a host of other officials were at the government center to show their support and heap praise on the deal, as they have done for similar pacts in the past.

This time the contract is with the Stockbridge Munsee Band of Mohicans, who claim ties to Sullivan County and the Hudson Valley dating back to the 1700s.

The difference between this deal and others is that it would establish an off-reservation casino and it would bring an end to a land claim the tribe has in Madison County that has been pending against the state since 1986.

Because of technical changes to the law regarding Indian casinos, Schumer said the casino will not need Congressional approval this time around.

However, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar must sign off on the deal, and thus far he has given no indication, nor has there been any word from anyone else in the U.S. Department of the Interior or the Bureau of Indian Affairs, that they are prepared to change their position, which has been in opposition of new off-reservation casinos.

The tribe’s lawyer, Donald Miller, said that the tribe has been talking to the Interior Department. Miller told the NY Daily News that the tribe has made “substantial progress.”

If the federal government does approve the deal, there will still be significant opposition from environmentalists, in part because the casino will sit on the bank of the Neversink River. Mark Izeman, a director with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said, “By proposing to build this mega-casino on a pristine historic river, the governor is virtually inviting litigation on environmental and land-use grounds.”

The proposed casino is expected to create thousands of jobs and would generate millions of dollars of tax revenues for the state.

For Sullivan County, the tribe has agreed to pay $15 million a year to help mitigate the negative impacts that a casino would bring. To some in county government, however, that might not be enough. At a meeting at the government center on November 18, lawmaker Alan Sorenson noted that $15 million was the amount the county negotiated with other tribes in 2002 when casino speculation started heating up. He said the impact fee should be higher now.

Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNGDmt4EPOxU0u85xcb1fevaDfPA-Q&url=http://www.riverreporter.com/issues/10-11-25/head2-casino.html

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