Indian tribes make case to boost NY economic plan

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – Top tribal leaders in New York said Wednesday they wanted to move beyond the fighting over cigarette taxes that has dominated their relations with the state, urging Albany to partner with the tribes that run some of upstate's fastest growing companies.

Ray Halbritter of the Oneida Nation that operates Turning Stone Casino and a string of retail stores, noted that no Native Americans were appointed to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's 10 regional economic development councils.

“Why is that?” Halbritter said at the state's first hearing on “State-Native American Relations.”

Cuomo had no immediate comment. Cuomo has appointed dozens of local business operators to the councils, some of which are among his bigger campaign contributors.

Sen. George Maziarz of western New York says he will pass along the tribes' concern to the governor.

The tribes' offer of a new relationship comes as Cuomo is exacting tax revenue from Indian sales of cigarettes that previous governors didn't, and while tribes try to negotiate a less costly deal. Cuomo also is in negotiations over land claims that continue with some tribes. Cuomo is also considering action that would allow non-Indian casinos to open in New York.

Tribal leaders on Wednesday, however, said their goal is to soften that adversarial relationship and provide economic development to the state without costly tax breaks to companies that could move for the next best deal.

“Through good times and bad times, through poverty and prosperity, we have been here and we will be here to the end of time,” said Ray Halbritter. “That is our guarantee ... it is the same guarantee our people made to George Washington in 1794.”

Maziarz said a fast way to benefit from a better relationship is to support the Senecas' federal application to operate a hydropower dam at the Pennsylvania border. Federal and state officials forced the tribe off 10,000 acres in 1961 and their homes were burned to make way for a reservoir as part of the Kinzua Dam on the Allegheny River in northern Pennsylvania that is run by an Ohio-based company.

Maziarz said the dam is still a scar for the Senecas. The deal would help heal that and the tribe agrees to provide much needed energy to Jamestown and the Southern Tier, which needs it to attract employers.

“If the governor were to say we support the Senecas' application for this license, we can't lose, the state of New York can't lose,” Maziarz said.

The St. Regis Mohawks in Franklin County at the Canadian border say the state could be a partner as the tribe diversifies from gambling into “sorely needed” opportunities including bringing public transportation to the sparsely populated region.

“While the population of our neighboring towns is dwindling, our population is growing and so is our potential,” said Ron LaFrance Sr., a chief of the St. Regis Mohawks at the Canada border.

LaFrance said the tribe envisions other “sorely needed” opportunities, including bringing public transportation to the sparsely populated northern New York region.

But trust will have to be earned at both ends first.

Richard Nephew, chairman of the Seneca Nation Council, said that for all the state's claims that tribes owe state taxes, the state still owes the tribe.

He cited the 1976 expressway agreement in which the tribe allowed a highway that was to become Interstate 86 to go through Seneca territory in the Southern Tier. The tribe received $494,386 and promises to maintain the road as well as other highways and to improve health care for nation members, promises Nephew said haven't been kept.

“Trusting New York again,” Nephew said, “my people, say, `Are you crazy?”'