In these days of political polarization, very few voters trust any government official. Actually it is a long-term trend; Forbes has been doing a poll for 16 years on the most and least trusted professions in the country. Nurses, military officers, grade school teachers and medical doctors are at the top of the Forbes list. At the bottom of the list are local officeholders, TV reporters, lawyers, business executives and lobbyists. In 2012, the Atlantic published its list; nurses, pharmacists, doctors and engineers were at the top and at the bottom, stockbrokers, Ad guys, Congressmen and car salespeople.
Based on those two polls, it seems we trust the people in charge of our health and safety and distrust those with their hands in our pockets. Members of Congress and local officeholders are there because we don’t trust the way they spend our money. To the poor, naive voters, it appears that lawmakers are just spending without a thought to the future or a rainy day plan. I think if I were a voter in Niagara Falls, New York, that is the way I would be feeling at the moment. The city council is developing a plan to control the way it spends money it receives from casino revenues belonging to the Seneca Nation. A brilliant idea, except the city is no longer receiving anything from the tribes.
The tribal compacts in New York provided an exclusivity agreement in exchange for a portion of its gaming revenues. The tribes paid the money to the state and the state shared with local communities. The Buffalo News estimated the Seneca Nation paid about $110 million a year, or according to the tribe, $1.4 billion in 15 years. It has been reported that Niagara Falls received approximately $125 million. However, the Seneca Nation has stopped the payments. The tribe says there was a 14 year limit on the payments and that time has passed. Also important to the tribe, the state did not abide by the exclusivity agreement. The state authorized slot machines at race tracks, at least one of which was within the zone that had been deemed exclusive. The state also authorized four commercial, non-Indian casinos, one of which, in the minds of the Seneca, also infringed on the exclusive zone.
The legal battle between the state and the tribe is the second round of the dispute over exclusivity and payments to the state. The first battle took place between 2009 and 2013. New York settled and conceded $200 million to the tribe. In the current argument, New York insists the tribe must continue paying according to the original compact and the Seneca Nation says that agreement has lapsed and is no longer binding. Thus far it is a standoff. It is much less a pressing issue to the state than the tribe; however, to the city of Niagara Falls it is really important. The city had learned to live off the tribal funds and without them Niagara Falls is in a financial crisis. It may be forced to drastically cut expenses and raise property taxes to fill in the gap between revenue and expenses in the 2019 city budget.
Recognizing the seriousness of the budget crisis, the city council led, by the mayor, is taking steps to insure it never again spends too much of the money from the Seneca casino on day to day operations. Instead, there is a proposal to put five percent away into a contingency fund and limit to 35 percent the amount that goes into the general fund. It is certainly a good idea to limit the amount spent on daily activities and put a guaranteed percentage into a rainy day fund. However, it is a bit late; the horses have already fled the barn. Every child on a ranch learns to close the barn door to keep the horses from escaping. However, it is not a lesson that is taught to politicians and only occurs to them when the horses – or in this case the Indian casino monies – have bolted and the barn is empty. It is fortunate for the Seneca that the city of Niagara Falls cannot impose any taxes or fees on the casino. If the city could, it would be taxing the casino to pay for the empty stalls; it is the way of government and the reason elected officials are on the bottom of the trust list.
