ALBANY – On Friday evening in Albany, an explosive rumor began circulating about a secretive gaming compact struck between the Seneca Nation and Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration.
Two days earlier, the Nation and Hochul’s office had struck a deal on the broad outlines of a new, 20-year agreement.
The details of the deal were kept secret. Yet the legislative session in Albany was also ending – and the Legislature was facing pressure to pass an eleventh-hour bill preauthorizing the Hochul administration to finalize the agreement, despite the details being unknown.
On Friday, the State Senate had passed the authorizing bill by a 62-1 vote. But around 7 p.m., the powerful state Hotel and Gaming Trades Council heard that the agreement would allow a new, Seneca-owned casino to be built in downtown Rochester. Word quickly spread to the Rochester delegation in the Assembly, which had not been informed of the plan. Neither had Rochester local elected officials.
In tense conversations into the night, Rochester elected officials, as well as the hotel and gaming union – which represents nearly 1,000 workers at the del Lago casino Resort and Casino about 47 miles east of downtown Rochester – sought to confirm the rumor with the Hochul administration.
In the waning hours of the 2023 state legislative session, Albany lawmakers are passing bills upending local elections, rolling back a campaign finance reform, sealing criminal…
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