County cuts back on use of casino cash
Legislature to fund suits against state
LOCKPORT — Although it has spent less than half of its nearly $1 million allocation of Seneca Niagara Casino profits, the Niagara County Legislature began to curtail the use of those funds last week.
After a couple of spending suggestions were withdrawn from a committee agenda last week, Majority Leader Richard E. Updegrove explained it was done because of the open-ended legal commitments the county has made to lawsuits against the state.
The county plans to use the remaining casino funds to pay expected heavy legal fees for suits over the local shares of casino revenue and the New York Power Authority’s “sweeps” of its surpluses into the regular state budget.
“We’re funding the litigation through that money,” said Updegrove, R-Lockport. “I think it would be prudent to make an assessment of what we believe that cost is going to be.”
The Legislature voted earlier this year to sue the state over a provision inserted into a budget bill by Assemblywoman Francine DelMonte, D-Lewiston, that takes away the county’s cut of the casino cash.
The county has collected about $976,000 from that source. The City of Niagara Falls has received $50 million since the casino opened at the end of 2002, and the state has pocketed $196.3 million.
There are two separate casino-related lawsuits authorized by the County Legislature, although not yet filed. One would try to overturn DelMonte’s action in this year’s budget; the other would seek to grab a chunk of the state’s share.
In a suit that has been filed, the county seeks to force the state to give $544 million back to the Power Authority, claiming the moves of surpluses into the state budget this year were illegal. The suit also demands that the Power Authority use the surpluses to pay rebates to residential electric customers.
Legislator Danny W. Sklarski, D-Town of Niagara, said the Legislature has spent $405,000 from the casino fund, leaving $571,000 available.
The Legislature has been spending it a few thousand dollars at a time on dozens of local festivals and community groups. Almost every legislator has served himself a piece of the slot machine pie.
Last week, the Legislature agreed to spend $20,000 from the casino cash for a batch of 10 different projects and events in the district of Vice Chairman Clyde L. Burmaster, R-Ransomville.
They include summer projects, festivals and holiday lighting in Ransomville and Youngstown.
Another $20,000 payout went to the Health Association of Niagara County, for a new Complete Senior Care program that includes a $1.8 million renovation of the association’s headquarters on Main Street in Niagara Falls. The health care program, expected to create 75 jobs, is to be expanded into Lockport in the next few years through a partnership with the Dale Association.
Also winning the nod was $5,000 sought by Legislator Sean J. O’Connor, D-Niagara Falls, to help pay for the Niagara Homecoming Festival this weekend in Niagara Falls, an offshoot of the Buffalo Homecoming Festival.
Organizer Frank Croisdale said it’s aimed at trying to lure back some of the people who have moved out of Niagara Falls in recent decades.
The Legislature also allocated $10,000 to the Electric Light Parade that marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season on Military Road in the Town of Niagara.
Sklarski said he thought that would do more for economic development than another casino- money proposal that he withdrew, spending $20,000 on an electric sign for Town Hall in the Town of Niagara. The town will pay for that itself, Sklarski said.
Also scrubbed was a$10,000 contribution requested by Sklarski and Legislator Jason J. Cafarella, D-Niagara Falls, toward the United Way of Niagara’s planned Community Impact Center on Pine Avenue.
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