Court rules against gaming compact
May 3, 2002

By R. PATRICK CORBETT
Observer-Dispatch

ALBANY— The New York state Legislature must approve Indian gaming compacts negotiated between a tribe and the governor, a state appeals court said Thursday.

The Appellate Division of state Supreme Court in Albany ruled 5-0 that the deal former Gov. Mario Cuomo cut with the Mohawk Indians for a Northern New York casino in 1993 is invalid.

Gov. George Pataki will appeal the decision, his spokesperson Suzanne Morris said Thursday.

In a similar case, State Supreme Court Justice James McCarthy recently concluded hearings on a challenge to the compact between Cuomo and the Oneida Indian Nation of New York for the Turning Stone Casino in Verona.

Utica lawyer Leon Koziol, who represents the Upstate Citizens for Equality in the local case, said he is encouraged by Thursday’s decision. “The logic ... is the state Legislature ... is the body that should be negotiating gaming compacts,” he said.

While McCarthy may give the decision weight in his ruling, Koziol said, his court is not in the Albany district, so he is not bound by Thursday’s decision.

Morris said, “We don’t see any immediate implications,” either for the Oneida case or for the six new Indian casinos authorized by the Legislature last fall.

Oneida Nation spokesman Mark Emery agreed. He said Thursday that the Albany decision does not apply to the Turning Stone compact, also approved by Cuomo in 1993.

He added that Nation leaders believe that Thursday’s ruling “misapplies federal law as it relates to Indian gaming.”

The appellate judges said that those who challenged the Mohawk compact, including the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce and an evangelical Christian group, “do not seek to shut down the tribe’s casino,” although they do want to prevent its expansion.

Koziol said the landowners group he represents wants the court to order the state to renegotiate the Oneida Nation compact to force the tribe to pay local governments for services that benefit the casino.

The Oneidas say they are exempt from taxes on tribal lands and do not pay local property taxes. They do offer, however, voluntary payments to local schools to offset any lost taxes.