It never had to come to this. The Senecas and everyone else assessing the fallout of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s bold move to compel the tribe to pay its $564.8 million debt need to understand that.
But after loss upon loss upon loss in the courts, the Senecas continued to refuse to meet their obligation to fork over the casino money they have withheld from the state and its 19 million residents, especially those in the host cities of Niagara Falls, Buffalo and Salamanca. So Hochul pulled the lever she had available, freezing their bank accounts.
That got their attention. Within hours, they paid up. It surely didn’t hurt, either, that Hochul vowed to them that New York would not negotiate a new casino agreement until the debt was paid in full. The existing compact expires at the end of 2023.
Now, incredibly, the Seneca Nation is moaning that the crisis they fomented somehow proves that A) the state wants “to destroy the Seneca Nation” (that didn’t happen, did it?) and nearly as preposterously, B) the state might not negotiate a new casino agreement in good faith. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black: The problem belongs to New York. It needs to negotiate with a partner that has already demonstrated its bad faith.
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The issue, in a nutshell, stems from a poorly worded extension to the gaming compact that allowed the Senecas to build a casino in Niagara Falls 20 years ago. Because the extension didn’t specifically say the tribe needed to continue making payments, it stopped making them. Greed or anger – or both – overcame decency and common sense.
Still, the Senecas were entitled to the binding arbitration the compact allows. They lost but – applying a loose interpretation to the word “binding” – they went to court and lost again. They appealed and lost. They also asked the National Indian Gaming Commission to determine if the extension of the compact was legal. The commission began that review in September, but in January the tribe finally agreed to pay up – then changed its mind, choosing to continue withholding the money while the federal examination continued.
Finally, Hochul had had enough. Over the weekend, the state asked KeyBank to freeze the Seneca Nation’s bank accounts, under a state law that allows creditors to force debtors to pay up. On Monday, the Senecas did just that.
For the Senecas, it created a crisis. They couldn’t complete basic transactions. Some homeowners couldn’t make payments. “There were all kinds of repercussive impacts that were crippling, just crippling,” said Leslie Logan, a founding member of the Seneca Mothers of the Nation, a group that has resisted paying the Nation’s debt.
It’s truly a shame it came to that. This was a fight that never had to happen. New York surely failed in reviewing the compact extension, but the Senecas didn’t have to try to turn that into a loophole. And when they did, they didn’t have to ignore the compact’s requirement for binding arbitration. They could have agreed to pay up after their first court loss or the second or third. They could have paid up when they finally said they’d pay up.
They did none of that. Instead, they made clear that they had no intention of meeting their obligation unless there was no wriggling out of it. With the weekend’s action, they got their wish. Hochul did her job. Good for her.
As to negotiating a new compact, the Senecas need not worry. They’ve made their interest in the money abundantly clear. We’re pretty sure New York likes getting its taste, too – assuming that any new deal ensures that will actually happen.
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