OWASCO - An orange bucket awaiting the names of “yes” speakers sat empty.
Jennifer Meyers / The Citizen
Members of the Cayuga County Legislature, from left, Christopher Palermo, Steven Cuddeback, Linda Murphy and Ray Lockwood listen to a local resident express his opinion and concerns on the proposed resolution of the Cayuga Indian Nation of New York's pending and future trust applications at Emerson Park Wednesday.
Members of the Cayuga County Legislature, from left, Christopher Palermo, Steven Cuddeback, Linda Murphy and Ray Lockwood listen to a local resident express his opinion and concerns on the proposed resolution of the Cayuga Indian Nation of New York's pending and future trust applications at Emerson Park Wednesday.
The Cayuga County Legislature took public comment Wednesday night regarding a proposed settlement with the Cayuga Indian Nation of New York. Legislature Chairman George Fearon, R-Springport, had wanted to strike a balance between positive and negative viewpoints of the proposed settlement. But public comment in the Emerson Park pavilion was a landslide of opposition.
On Monday, the boards of the town of Springport, the village of Union Springs and the Union Springs School District voted unanimously in opposition to the proposed settlement, which was negotiated by Brian Laudadio, of the Harris Beach law firm and the county's attorney for tribal affairs.
Robert Bower, the Springport town supervisor, said the proposed agreement discusses allowing the Cayugas sovereign land so they can have a community, but it takes away from the existing community.
“It is ruining our community and the village of Union Springs will be gone in 20 years,” Bower said.
He noted that the Nice N Easy Grocery Shoppe and gas station in Union Springs - which burnt down in February - is not being rebuilt because the shop can't compete with the nation's Union Springs gas station's untaxed gasoline and cigarettes.
When the nation's 25-year-old land claim was dismissed in federal court in 2005, the Cayugas applied to the federal government for about 180 acres in Montezuma, Seneca Falls, Springport and Union Springs to be held in sovereign trust status. If the agreement is accepted by both Cayuga and Seneca counties and at the state and federal levels, the tribe would be capped at having 10,000 acres of sovereign, restricted fee land.
Under the agreement, no more than 20-percent of any municipality could be held in sovereign status by the Cayugas. That would amount to 3,920 acres in the town of Aurelius; 116 in the village of Aurora; 174 in the village of Cayuga; 6,090 in the town of Ledyard; 2,398 in the town of Montezuma; 3,240 in the town of Springport; and 226 in the village of Union Springs, Laudadio said.
Ed Trufant, Union Springs mayor, said his municipality had not been informed or involved in the negotiations. Laudadio said it had not been an intended slight, but that he worked directly for the county and reported to them since negotiations were opened last fall over the tribe's land-in-trust applications.
“They're going to lose our rear end in this deal,” Trufant said.
Still, the audience was low-key. Around 70 people were present at the start of the meeting. Many chairs were empty. The meeting finished 45 minutes before it was scheduled to end at 9:10 p.m. Around 10 speakers from the public gave comment, but many signed-up speakers passed on their turns to speak.
Auburn Mayor Tim Lattimore gave a tepid endorsement of the agreement, but he was alone in any favoritism toward it.
The mayor noted that the tribe he has dialogued with over a possible casino in Auburn - the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma - was willing to pay taxes.
The Cayuga Nation has long opposed the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma, which has some ancestral ties to the New York Cayugas but has a reservation in Oklahoma. A requirement of the agreement would be for the U.S. Congress to bar the Seneca-Cayugas from having trust land in New York.
Lattimore said a mayor of Niagara Falls advised him: “If you don't negotiate from the ground up, you're going to lose. Don't let the state dictate the terms.”
“I know you're mad you don't have the upper hand,” Lattimore added. “We should sit down and negotiate a settlement with everyone concerned.”
Some speakers expressed skepticism that the proposed payments to the counties are tied to the financial success of a large-scale casino, but the tribe can seek sovereign restricted fee land no matter what. Chuck Crosby, of Owasco, said that the profitability of a possible Catskills casino faces a “dilution factor” with both New Jersey and Pennsylvania seeking to expand Las Vegas-style gaming for revenue.
“How can we know this pie-in-the-sky money is going to be available to us?” Crosby asked.
Laudadio countered that - without an agreement - the counties will have no ability to limit gaming by the tribes within their borders or limit how much land is taken into sovereign status.
Andy Anderson wondered why the Cayugas cannot be like the Amish or the Mennonites and live separately to practice their cultures but still abide by the same laws as their neighbors.
“I hate to speak when I'm angry but I'm angry,” Anderson said. “To me, it's a moral issue. No person because of blood heritage should have better rights than another. We all have pledged our allegiance to one Nation under God, indivisible.”
Laudadio said he was advising the counties to accept the settlement because: “It's a matter of risk assessment.”
He believes the federal Department of Interior will grant the tribes' sovereign trust status for some portion of their properties; that the Cayugas will reopen their bingo halls and eventually upgrade to bigger gambling enterprises; and that the federal courts will continue to rule that it is valid for the federal government to take American Indian land into trust.
It's a way to take “control over how it turns out or take the risk and have the decision made by the (Bureau of Indian Affairs) and the federal courts,” Laudadio said.
A state law would allow three American Indian casinos in the Catskills. Gov. Eliot Spitzer's administration has committed to a gaming compact with the Mohawks, and is in heavy negotiations with another tribe besides the Cayugas over a second casino. The third casino could be the Cayugas', Laudadio said.
Richard Tallcot, chairman of the local Upstate Citizens for Equality chapter, asked legislators to vote against the proposed settlement.
He said the land-in-trust applications can be fought.
“This is not a continuation of the land claim,” Tallcot said. “(Over the years) Harris Beach's advice was to settle several times because they thought we couldn't win.”
William Zobkiw, of Auburn, said he has spoken to some Cayugas who are in opposition to the agreement and questioned if the Cayuga leadership represented all of the tribe.
Clint Halftown, the tribe's federally recognized representative, B.J. Radford, the chief executive officer for the Cayuga Nation's LakeSide Enterprises, and other members of the tribe attended the hearing. They declined comment about the meeting.
Staff writer Amaris Elliott-Engel can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or at amaris.elliot-engel@lee.net
To participate
€ Seneca County will receive public comment on the proposed settlement with the Cayuga Indian Nation of New York at 6 p.m. Monday, June 18. The meeting will be held in the Seneca Falls Recreation Center, 35 Water St., Seneca Falls. Seneca County residents will be allowed to give statements of three minutes or less. The hearing will last until all who sign up to speak have spoken. Speakers must sign up before the meeting.
€ Cayuga County will probably vote on the proposal at its next regular monthly meeting 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 26, at the Pavilion at Emerson Park.
€ Seneca County will probably vote on the proposal at its next regular monthly meeting 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 26, at the Seneca County Office Building, 1 DiPronio Drive, Waterloo.
€ Both counties are accepting written comment.
Deal details
€ The Cayuga's 64,000-acre reservation and land claim area would be disestablished by the U.S. Congress.
€ The Cayugas would be able to pursue a gaming compact with New York to seek Class III gaming, or a Las Vegas-style casino.
€ Class II gaming, or electronic bingo halls, and Class III gaming would not be allowed without county approval.
€ The Cayugas could designate 10,000 acres of land in Cayuga and Seneca counties within its 64,000-acre claim area as restricted fee, sovereign land. The acreage must make up no more than 20 percent of any municipality.
€ The tribe would not be able to have any sovereign land until the casino is operational.
€ Existing easements and rights-of-way could not be extinguished when land enters sovereign status.
€ Counties would be held harmless against the erosion of its tax base by receiving $12.8 million - $7.74 million would go to Cayuga County and $5.1 million to Seneca County - no matter if the Cayugas have any restricted fee land or not.
€ Up to $2.46 million more would be paid based on the amount of land the tribe designated as restricted fee land.
€ A Wall Street firm has estimated a hypothetical Cayuga casino could have a $492 million slot drop of which the two counties would each receive .5 percent, as well as an additional $3 million not based on the slot drop. Two-thirds would go to Cayuga County and one-third to Seneca County.
€ Localities that have the Cayugas' restricted fee land within their borders would receive a share of the casino revenue directly from the state - .25 percent of the annual slot drop, or up to $1.23 million.
€ The Cayugas would enter into municipal service agreements for the provision of police, fire and other services to the tribe's sovereign lands.
€ Any other lands bought by the Cayugas past the 10,000 acres would be taxable.
€ The Cayugas would comply with federal environmental laws and adopt building and fire protection codes as rigorous as the state Uniform Building and Fire Protection Code.
€ The Cayugas would waive sovereign immunity and could be sued to enforce the terms of the agreement.
€ The Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma would be barred by the U.S. Congress from taking lands into trust.
On Monday, the boards of the town of Springport, the village of Union Springs and the Union Springs School District voted unanimously in opposition to the proposed settlement, which was negotiated by Brian Laudadio, of the Harris Beach law firm and the county's attorney for tribal affairs.
Robert Bower, the Springport town supervisor, said the proposed agreement discusses allowing the Cayugas sovereign land so they can have a community, but it takes away from the existing community.
“It is ruining our community and the village of Union Springs will be gone in 20 years,” Bower said.
He noted that the Nice N Easy Grocery Shoppe and gas station in Union Springs - which burnt down in February - is not being rebuilt because the shop can't compete with the nation's Union Springs gas station's untaxed gasoline and cigarettes.
When the nation's 25-year-old land claim was dismissed in federal court in 2005, the Cayugas applied to the federal government for about 180 acres in Montezuma, Seneca Falls, Springport and Union Springs to be held in sovereign trust status. If the agreement is accepted by both Cayuga and Seneca counties and at the state and federal levels, the tribe would be capped at having 10,000 acres of sovereign, restricted fee land.
Under the agreement, no more than 20-percent of any municipality could be held in sovereign status by the Cayugas. That would amount to 3,920 acres in the town of Aurelius; 116 in the village of Aurora; 174 in the village of Cayuga; 6,090 in the town of Ledyard; 2,398 in the town of Montezuma; 3,240 in the town of Springport; and 226 in the village of Union Springs, Laudadio said.
Ed Trufant, Union Springs mayor, said his municipality had not been informed or involved in the negotiations. Laudadio said it had not been an intended slight, but that he worked directly for the county and reported to them since negotiations were opened last fall over the tribe's land-in-trust applications.
“They're going to lose our rear end in this deal,” Trufant said.
Still, the audience was low-key. Around 70 people were present at the start of the meeting. Many chairs were empty. The meeting finished 45 minutes before it was scheduled to end at 9:10 p.m. Around 10 speakers from the public gave comment, but many signed-up speakers passed on their turns to speak.
Auburn Mayor Tim Lattimore gave a tepid endorsement of the agreement, but he was alone in any favoritism toward it.
The mayor noted that the tribe he has dialogued with over a possible casino in Auburn - the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma - was willing to pay taxes.
The Cayuga Nation has long opposed the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma, which has some ancestral ties to the New York Cayugas but has a reservation in Oklahoma. A requirement of the agreement would be for the U.S. Congress to bar the Seneca-Cayugas from having trust land in New York.
Lattimore said a mayor of Niagara Falls advised him: “If you don't negotiate from the ground up, you're going to lose. Don't let the state dictate the terms.”
“I know you're mad you don't have the upper hand,” Lattimore added. “We should sit down and negotiate a settlement with everyone concerned.”
Some speakers expressed skepticism that the proposed payments to the counties are tied to the financial success of a large-scale casino, but the tribe can seek sovereign restricted fee land no matter what. Chuck Crosby, of Owasco, said that the profitability of a possible Catskills casino faces a “dilution factor” with both New Jersey and Pennsylvania seeking to expand Las Vegas-style gaming for revenue.
“How can we know this pie-in-the-sky money is going to be available to us?” Crosby asked.
Laudadio countered that - without an agreement - the counties will have no ability to limit gaming by the tribes within their borders or limit how much land is taken into sovereign status.
Andy Anderson wondered why the Cayugas cannot be like the Amish or the Mennonites and live separately to practice their cultures but still abide by the same laws as their neighbors.
“I hate to speak when I'm angry but I'm angry,” Anderson said. “To me, it's a moral issue. No person because of blood heritage should have better rights than another. We all have pledged our allegiance to one Nation under God, indivisible.”
Laudadio said he was advising the counties to accept the settlement because: “It's a matter of risk assessment.”
He believes the federal Department of Interior will grant the tribes' sovereign trust status for some portion of their properties; that the Cayugas will reopen their bingo halls and eventually upgrade to bigger gambling enterprises; and that the federal courts will continue to rule that it is valid for the federal government to take American Indian land into trust.
It's a way to take “control over how it turns out or take the risk and have the decision made by the (Bureau of Indian Affairs) and the federal courts,” Laudadio said.
A state law would allow three American Indian casinos in the Catskills. Gov. Eliot Spitzer's administration has committed to a gaming compact with the Mohawks, and is in heavy negotiations with another tribe besides the Cayugas over a second casino. The third casino could be the Cayugas', Laudadio said.
Richard Tallcot, chairman of the local Upstate Citizens for Equality chapter, asked legislators to vote against the proposed settlement.
He said the land-in-trust applications can be fought.
“This is not a continuation of the land claim,” Tallcot said. “(Over the years) Harris Beach's advice was to settle several times because they thought we couldn't win.”
William Zobkiw, of Auburn, said he has spoken to some Cayugas who are in opposition to the agreement and questioned if the Cayuga leadership represented all of the tribe.
Clint Halftown, the tribe's federally recognized representative, B.J. Radford, the chief executive officer for the Cayuga Nation's LakeSide Enterprises, and other members of the tribe attended the hearing. They declined comment about the meeting.
Staff writer Amaris Elliott-Engel can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or at amaris.elliot-engel@lee.net
To participate
€ Seneca County will receive public comment on the proposed settlement with the Cayuga Indian Nation of New York at 6 p.m. Monday, June 18. The meeting will be held in the Seneca Falls Recreation Center, 35 Water St., Seneca Falls. Seneca County residents will be allowed to give statements of three minutes or less. The hearing will last until all who sign up to speak have spoken. Speakers must sign up before the meeting.
€ Cayuga County will probably vote on the proposal at its next regular monthly meeting 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 26, at the Pavilion at Emerson Park.
€ Seneca County will probably vote on the proposal at its next regular monthly meeting 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 26, at the Seneca County Office Building, 1 DiPronio Drive, Waterloo.
€ Both counties are accepting written comment.
Deal details
€ The Cayuga's 64,000-acre reservation and land claim area would be disestablished by the U.S. Congress.
€ The Cayugas would be able to pursue a gaming compact with New York to seek Class III gaming, or a Las Vegas-style casino.
€ Class II gaming, or electronic bingo halls, and Class III gaming would not be allowed without county approval.
€ The Cayugas could designate 10,000 acres of land in Cayuga and Seneca counties within its 64,000-acre claim area as restricted fee, sovereign land. The acreage must make up no more than 20 percent of any municipality.
€ The tribe would not be able to have any sovereign land until the casino is operational.
€ Existing easements and rights-of-way could not be extinguished when land enters sovereign status.
€ Counties would be held harmless against the erosion of its tax base by receiving $12.8 million - $7.74 million would go to Cayuga County and $5.1 million to Seneca County - no matter if the Cayugas have any restricted fee land or not.
€ Up to $2.46 million more would be paid based on the amount of land the tribe designated as restricted fee land.
€ A Wall Street firm has estimated a hypothetical Cayuga casino could have a $492 million slot drop of which the two counties would each receive .5 percent, as well as an additional $3 million not based on the slot drop. Two-thirds would go to Cayuga County and one-third to Seneca County.
€ Localities that have the Cayugas' restricted fee land within their borders would receive a share of the casino revenue directly from the state - .25 percent of the annual slot drop, or up to $1.23 million.
€ The Cayugas would enter into municipal service agreements for the provision of police, fire and other services to the tribe's sovereign lands.
€ Any other lands bought by the Cayugas past the 10,000 acres would be taxable.
€ The Cayugas would comply with federal environmental laws and adopt building and fire protection codes as rigorous as the state Uniform Building and Fire Protection Code.
€ The Cayugas would waive sovereign immunity and could be sued to enforce the terms of the agreement.
€ The Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma would be barred by the U.S. Congress from taking lands into trust.