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Opponents of a Buffalo casino have unleashed one of their primary weapons - a legal argument that the downtown site is not sovereign Indian land.
They also argue in a new federal court filing that, although the Seneca Nation property is exempt from property taxes, it is not exempt from other types of taxes and regulations.
At the heart of the filing is one of the opposition's core arguments: The Senecas' purchase of 9 acres of land along Michigan Avenue does not meet the legal threshold for sovereign land so the casino project is illegal.
"If it's not sovereign land, they can't gamble on it," said Joseph M. Finnerty, a lawyer for the opposition, including Citizens Against Casino Gambling. "If you read the statutes, it's clear as a bell."
Finnerty said the statutes - the Seneca Nation Settlement Act of 1990 and the Indian Regulatory Gaming Act of 1988 - never intended for Indian-run casinos to open on nonsovereign land.
In court papers, casino opponents argue that former Interior Secretary Gale Norton made a mistake when she decided any land the Senecas purchased with funds set aside by the Seneca settlement act would be sovereign territory.
They also claim that, even if the property is sovereign land, the proposed casino would be unlawful because the federal government generally prohibits gambling on Indian lands acquired after 1988.
"The Indian Regulatory Gaming Act was passed to curtail gambling on off-reservation land," Finnerty said. "That was its sole purpose."
The lawsuit also claims the federal government ignored the casino's impact on the community, environment and historic buildings. The suit makes many of the same arguments that former Reps. John J. LaFalce and Amo Houghton, sponsors of the Seneca settlement act, made when the federal suit was first filed in January.
When Congress passed the Seneca act, the federal and state governments kicked in $60 million. The money was supposed to compensate the Senecas for a century's worth of $1-a-year leases the Senecas were forced to accept from homeowners and businesses on Seneca land in Salamanca.
"The only thing we contemplated at that time was giving fair recompense to the Indians at Salamanca for the continued use of those lands," LaFalce told The Buffalo News in January. "Gambling was never discussed nor contemplated."
Houghton, who authored the 1990 law, agreed. Phil Pantano, a spokesman for the Seneca Gaming Corp., declined to comment because the Senecas are not a defendant in the federal suit. The defendants are the U.S. Department of the Interior, former Interior Secretary Gale Norton and the U.S. National Indian Gaming Commission.
The suit, filed in January, is being funded in large part by the Margaret L. Wendt Foundation and donations from other foundations and individuals. The plaintiffs include Citizens for a Better Buffalo; Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, D-Buffalo; the Preservation Coalition of Erie County; and Erie County Executive Joel A. Giambra.
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