BUFFALO, N.Y. — Earlier this year, the Seneca Nation agreed to pay New York state about $565 million in casino revenue sharing back payments.
The two parties disputed over the money for roughly five years, but after arbitration in New York's favor and multiple court proceedings upholding the arbitration, Seneca President Matt Pagels said the council believed it was time to move forward so they got to work on a new gaming compact due by Dec. 9, 2023.
"That day when we signed that agreement was an effort to move forward, not that nobody was wrong or right,” Pagels said. “It was just to say moving forward is the most important part.”
However, the Senecas did not transfer the money in late-January as they agreed. Pagels said the council decided it was better to wait for the Department of Interior to finish its review of amendments made as a result of the arbitration.
"It wasn't formalized by council in a session of council," Pagels said. "It was just directed to me that this is the agreement that we like and we're going to sign. So when they made their official action, that was then voided on our behalf but did New York state find that agreement voided is up to them and their interpretation of it."
The governor's office said when it didn't receive the payments it was forced to take action to collect them. That action in late March involved freezing Seneca corporation bank accounts.
"What they did by freezing our accounts that Saturday morning was cripple the Nation, cripple the casino, cripple the families, the elders that can't get their prescription medication because checks went out on Friday that were not going to clear on Monday," Pagels said.
The Seneca president said the Hochul administration strong-armed the Senecas unnecessarily as the litigation had multiple times required them to show they had allocated and ear-marked the funds and the state had already obtained a judgment decision to collect it.
"Today would have been the day that [Judge Skretny] would have released that fund,” he said. “It was in the decree which she filed with the courts to get the judgment orders.”
The state says the Court set April 8 as the Nation’s response deadline to the turnover motion, however, the fact that the Seneca Nation commingled the money themselves, rather than have a single dedicated escrow amount, caused the motion to impact the Nation’s overall accounts rather than just the disputed amount.
"Governor Hochul has worked to resolve this issue amicably since the beginning of her administration and receive the funds the State and local governments are owed. The courts have consistently ruled in the State's favor, and the State has negotiated in good faith and met every hurdle. Time and again, the Nation failed to fulfill their court-ordered obligations. After the Nation once again failed to make payments under the terms of an amicable agreement, the State had to take action to enforce the judgment, and we are pleased to have finally secured these long-overdue funds for Western New York communities,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
Pagels believes the governor took the action because she wanted to have the money in place to help fund the majority of the state's share of a new Buffalo Bills stadium — an agreement she announced at roughly the same time.
"It was a political ploy, I'm 99% sure of, yes,” he said. “She did it that Friday so that she knew we'd have to release that money on Monday because I couldn't cripple Western New York like she felt she could with politics.”
Pagels said the endgame is not to affect Hochul's election bid.
"Oh no. By no means is it that,” he said. “It's to get to a negotiating table and create a fair, honest, open compact.”
Pagels said reviewing the current compact and getting a new one in place remains the priority and should have begun as soon as Hochul got the casino money. He said the gaming landscape has vastly evolved since the last negotiations.
"You couldn't even forecast mobile sports betting 20 years ago,” Pagels said. “Nobody saw that coming but the inability for us to hinge or to move or adjust because of the compact and the approvals that have to go through New York state is just unfair and unreasonable, so that's why this compact is so important.”
He said the Senecas have already identified much of what they believe should be in and out of the compact.