The Niagara Falls Reporter has a policy not to take ads from the Seneca Gaming Corp. or the Seneca Nation.
We believe having the Seneca’s here has been bad for Niagara Falls.

It is not because the Seneca’s are bad as people, race, tribe or culture. In fact there is much to admire about the Seneca’s as brave and honest people.

It is the deal that Albany made with the Seneca’s that is bad for us and good for them. It is in their interest to keep their deal and win support of those who might influence others, like the media or politicians. And to prevent the non-Seneca public from finding out how bad the deal really is.

As we at the Reporter do not seek Seneca money, they do not seek us either. Since 2005, we have written articles critical of the Seneca deal. It is not because Seneca Gaming is not paying Niagara Falls the $58 million the city would have gotten had the compact been honored. If the city had gotten the money, it would have been squandered by now, like earlier tens of millions.
It may be a blessing in disguise that the Seneca’s haven’t paid. Otherwise this compact might continue without debate.

Our objection to the Seneca deal is not solely about money. It is about equality, or rather the inequality of having one group of men, living side by side, with other men, who have more rights, who have legal preferences. That the Seneca Nation can operate legal casinos while Americans can’t; that the Seneca’s can operate businesses tax free, while other men can’t. That they can build without building permits and not follow expensive requirements that others who build must follow. New York State building codes make buildings much more expensive. 

Whether it was Seneca or Irish, Italian, African or whoever, such an advantage given to one group of men over another is not only wrong, it is disastrous.

The economic advantage the Seneca’s enjoy over people living in Niagara Falls is so great that, if it continues, it is only a matter of time before they have full financial control of Niagara Falls. 

When one group has such a tax advantage over others, there can be only one result: the favored group gets rich and all others grow poor.

It is happening now.

If the Reporter took Seneca money, we would be endorsing this human rights violation that Albany forced upon those it governs.

It is a human rights violation.

Today we have a foreign nation, not on historic reservation land, but on 51 acres of what used to be Niagara Falls , USA . They are by their own definition, not Americans but a Sovereign Nation.

A tax-free nation living next door to a population burdened to the breaking point with taxes. They sit among us, making billions (not millions) and pay no taxes but take our services, and employ our people as their servants, at modest and low wages and take our money from the legions of local gamblers who patronize their business.

This new wealth of the Seneca’s, which in 10 years made some of them fabulously wealthy, could have been ours. This city could have been wealthy had our government in Albany not been so corrupt. 

The Reporter does not accept the Seneca’s money. 

We want change.