The New York State Assembly returned after its normal June 10 adjournment date for a special session to clear up tax bills and other issues. A bill to allow finalization of a new 20-year gaming compact for the Seneca Nation was not among those issues.
The Assembly adjourned its 2023 session on June 21 without voting on a bill that would authorize Governor Kathy Hochul to finalize a new compact to replace its current compact, which expires in December. The state Senate had easily passed an authorization bill after the Senecas and the governor’s office announced they had agreed in principle to a new compact.
The stumbling block was a plan included in the new compact to build and open the tribe’s fourth Western New York casino in the city of Rochester, the seat of Monroe County.
The Hochul administration and tribal officials had negotiated the compact largely in secrecy, and after the existence of the Rochester casino plan surfaced, under pressure from the Monroe County delegation and Rochester city officials, Assembly leaders refused to bring the bill to authorize Hochul to sign the deal to a vote.
The state Senate didn’t know about the Rochester casino when it easily cleared the authorization bill. “This is where it gets really complicated,” said Managing Partner of O’Donnell Solutions Jack O’Donnell who is involved in this issue on behalf of operator Delaware North, in an interview with Spectrum News. “The Senate didn’t even pass a deal. They passed what was an authorization to allow the executive to enter into a deal.”
Hochul herself did not even participate in the negotiations, having recused herself because her husband works for Delaware North, a competitor to the Senecas in the New York casino market. The deal was negotiated by members of her administration.
“But the deal itself was secret, so the Senate didn’t know what they were voting on. They were voting, again, not on the specifics of the deal, but to authorize the executive to enter into it,” O’Donnell said.
The Senecas’ current compact, negotiated in 2002, had been handled differently. The authorization bills referenced the specifics of the deal reached between the tribe and then-Governor George Pataki. “For something this big—this is a 20-year deal that affects education, it affects the community, a sovereign nation—to do that in the dark of night… but hopefully, now, there’s plenty of time for this to get some sunlight,” O’Donnell told Spectrum News.
As adjournment was imminent on June 21, Hochul’s office made a last-ditch effort to persuade the Assembly to pass the authorization bill by offering to remove the Rochester casino plan. According to unnamed sources cited by Pechanga.net, the new agreement would not have included a new Seneca casino anywhere in the state. Assembly members still refused, and adjourned that evening without voting on the bill.
“Given what has happened in the past week-and-a-half, and how much we were kept out of the process initially—not having that level of trust—we didn’t feel comfortable with a verbal statement that (the agreement) doesn’t include a Rochester casino,” Assemblywoman Sarah Clark of Rochester said the following day, according to Pechanga.
“While we have engaged in productive discussions with the Seneca Nation recently, we were unable to reach a final agreement, and the Assembly did not pass the authorizing legislation,” Hochul’s communications director, Julie Wood, said in a statement. “We look forward to continuing to work toward an agreement that works for all parties.”
“If the Assembly was willing to take up the legislation, the Nation was willing to make significant concessions from our previous agreement in principle,” Seneca President Rickey Armstrong Sr. said in a statement the day after adjournment. “Unfortunately, we were not able to arrive at a revised agreement that met the needs of the Seneca people while also addressing the concerns of the Assembly and the Executive Office.”
Under the compact agreed to in principle, the Senecas had agreed to pay 19.5 percent of gaming revenue to New York for most of a new 20-year agreement. Armstrong, in his statement, noted that agreement on the state revenue share was contingent on including the Rochester casino.
“A deal that does not allow the Nation to open a fourth casino would almost certainly come with significantly lower payments of Nation gaming revenue to the state,” Armstrong said. “Continuing under the terms of our outdated current compact beyond its expiration on December 9 is neither a reasonable nor acceptable solution.”
Armstrong also referenced the last-minute efforts by Hochul’s administration to strike a deal that did not include a fourth casino. “The Seneca Nation negotiated with the state’s negotiating team over the last several days to come to an agreement on new compact terms while the Assembly was still in session,” Armstrong said in the statement.
“It is disappointing that this important work was not completed before the legislature adjourned. However, Assembly leadership has indicated a willingness to return to Albany once the Nation and the state are able to finalize fair terms for a new compact. That remains our goal.”
A press release issued by the Rochester delegation and reported by Spectrum News indicates the parties are closer to an acceptable deal, raising hope that the Assembly could return in a special session to finalize the deal.
“We look forward to seeing a public memorandum of understanding between the state and the Seneca Nation that the legislature can ratify in a transparent way with insight from all affected localities,” the lawmakers wrote in a joint statement.
