By John Milgrim
Ottaway News Service
jmottaway@aol.com
Albany - The Pataki administration this week took its strongest position in years in favor of a Mohawk Indian casino at Monticello Raceway, asking the feds to expedite their review and promising all the support needed to make it happen.
The support came in a letter from Greg Allen, Gov. George Pataki's assistant counsel, mailed to the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs on Thursday.
"The governor strongly supports the tribe's efforts to build a casino at the raceway site," Allen said in the letter. "I respectfully urge the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) to expedite its review process and promptly notify this office once the potential environmental impacts have been satisfactorily addressed."
The letter was the clearest public signal yet of Pataki's blessing for what remains the only Catskill casino plan that could feasibly be approved before the end of his administration.
"We'll do what we have to do to get it done," said Pataki spokesman Saleem Cheeks.
The move got a lukewarm reaction from some who have watched the sometimes chaotic and as yet fruitless battle to bring casino gaming to the Catskills.
"I can't get excited about the letter," said state Sen. John Bonacic, R-Mount Hope, who represents the portion of the Catskills where casinos have been proposed. "We've been down this road before, several times, in fact."
And regardless of Pataki's support, Bonacic said he wants local governments to sign off on the deal before final approvals are granted.
Since 2001, Pataki has had authority from the Legislature to enter into up to three Catskill casino agreements with Indian tribes.
Last year, Pataki made an ill-fated attempt to push the number to five in hopes of using casinos to settle land-claim lawsuits tribes had filed against the state. Courts have since wiped out or weakened those cases for the tribes.
The Mohawks, however, remain the only tribe apparently close to getting federal approval for the requisite conversion of 30 acres at the raceway site into Indian territory.
Empire Resorts, which owns the site and plans to manage the proposed $505 million casino, is working with the tribe to finish additional environmental review issues the BIA recently asked for.
"We're very close to responding to the (BIA environmental request) letter," said Empire spokesman Charlie Degliomini. "We're just about there."
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