Dyster ‘Mans Up’ to Senecas

‘It’s sad believe me, missy, if you’re born to be a sissy.’

It’s never too late to get ‘courage’!

Not too long ago, a cowardly-type of person called out from a safe distance and said, “I bet you can’t say one nice thing about (Niagara Falls Mayor) Paul Dyster. And don’t just say he’s tall.”

I didn’t have to hesitate a moment – for I know it’s the characteristic of a saint to look for the smallest good in anyone and try to magnify it, and I had obtained my certificate of sainthood more than 25 years ago from the Universal Life Church, for which I paid them the sum of $5.

It so happened I did have something good to say about Dyster. Indeed, I am always looking for something good to say about him, hoping to say something good about him, and I find so very little opportunity.

(By the way, for those seeking canonization, you can still obtain a beautiful 8.5 x 11 certificate of sainthood inscribed with your name as a new saint for $10. You can order your certificate online at ULC.net. Please note: The reasons for sainthood are required, but will not be printed on the certificate. In my day, they took a saint’s word for the reasons for canonization along with the $5.).

But what in the hell did Dyster do that was so damn good?

“Dyster showed himself a MAN  – and like my friend Carl Paladino said, ‘”Man” that’s a big word,’ and that’s what Dyster did - when he spoke out for the gas station and convenience store owners against the Senecas,” I said to the timid man.

It was the Niagara Falls Reporter that broke the story of how the Seneca Gaming Corp. is planning to add a gas station and convenience store to its 50-acre casino property, a property ceded to Seneca by the State of New York after 227 years in America and made sovereign territory.

It had been part of downtown Niagara Falls since the city was incorporated in 1892, predating the birth of the oldest living person of either Seneca or American extraction.

In Niagara Falls and throughout the state, American gas station owners pay 49.3 cents per gallon in state tax, along with property taxes and sales tax on many of the goods and sundries traditionally associated with convenience stores and gas stations.

They also pay $4.35 per pack in state excise tax on cigarettes, while Senecas can sell their native brands (which statistics show enable one to secure eternal beatitude through the immortalizing acquisition of lung cancer at the same rates as evil American brands) without such taxes.

But Dyster stood tall. He said tax-free gas and cigarettes in the center of downtown Niagara Falls would kill local businesses.
"Local business people fear, and I think quite correctly, that it could put most if not all the gas stations in Niagara Falls out of business, and that wouldn't be a good thing," said Dyster.

 Dyster also manfully questioned it’s legality.

The Gaming Compact states: "(The land) would be used for gaming and commercial activities traditionally associated with the operation or conduct of a casino facility."

"At the time the compact was being negotiated there was a lot of discussion about this and there were assurances given to the community that this type of development was not intended," Dyster said.
Intent is a funny thing.

State Sen. George Maziarz (R-62nd Dist.) and former Niagara Falls Mayor Vince Anello also support Dyster's recollection that the Senecas verbally agreed they would not put a gas station or convenience store at the casino site.

Funny that never made it into the written compact.

Like most American politicians, and business people in general, the Senecas’ verbal agreements are not worth the paper they aren’t printed on.

The compact does not exclude gas stations and smoke shops directly but rather leaves open to interpretation whether or not they are traditionally associated with casinos.

One is in foreign territory to predict just how a lawsuit will end up and even who has jurisdiction.

The compact apparently doesn’t exclude tax-free hotels that pay no bed tax, property tax or sales tax and compete directly with highly-taxed hotels within shadow distance, since the Senecas have the the largest hotel in Western New York.

It did not exclude nightclubs and restaurants since the Senecas have several, all competing with local restaurants and taverns who pay high taxes.

A smart negotiator would have included in writing the prohibition of the two biggest traditional Indian money makers: gas stations and tobacco shops - just to make it perfectly clear.

Today, Senecas sell tax-free clothing, crystal, watches, televisions, home theater systems, dvd’s, golf clubs, cameras, diamonds, fancy candles, fancy chocolates, food and a hell of a lot more. One is hard-pressed to say how selling plasma television sets, for example, is “traditionally associated with the operation or conduct of a casino facility."

Of course, all these went in before Dyster’s time as mayor.

He waited for the governor to stand up first.

Seriously though, if you  need a list for what passes for online sainthood these days, the convenience and gas station owners in this town would be a pretty good start. 

See you in heaven.