Lawmakers want Senecas and State to Pay Fees for City Services
By Tony Farina
Desperate times sometimes make for desperate measures, and at least two Niagara Falls City Councilman feel the time has come to take on the Senecas and the state as they fight over gaming and leave the city dangling in the wind over a projected budget deficit of between $7 million and $10 million and no plan so far to close it.
Council Chairman Sam Fruscione and Councilman Glenn Choolokian want the council to assess fees on the Seneca Niagara casino and the State Park to generate income for the city during the tough times created, in part, by the fight over the gaming compact that has put on hold upwards of $58 million due the city from slot revenue over the last three years.
“It is time to use our ability to assess fees on two of the largest users of our system,” Fruscione told the Reporter about the resolution that will be filed on Wednesday for consideration at next Monday’s council meeting.
“The casino and the State Park both receive the full range of city services, including fire protection, hazardous materials response, emergency medical calls, rescues, snow plowing and much more,” said Fruscione. “What’s happened in this current situation is that the city’s hard-working taxpayers are paying taxes for everybody and getting nothing back.”
Choolokian said the council “has been waiting respectfully and patiently for news on the municipal budget, but at this time we have no idea how the city’s fiscal crisis is going to end. In addition, we have the outcome of the casino arbitration pending.” It is estimated that it will take 3 to 6 months before the panel reaches a decision and in the meantime there is still no relief in sight to close the city’s gaping deficit.
Choolokian, who has publicly complained about lawmakers being left out in the dark on the budget talks between Mayor Paul Dyster and Albany, said the time has come for the city “to seek creative options to generate income for Niagara Falls.”
Mayor Dyster has still not presented his self-described “disaster” budget plan to the council, which was due Oct. 1. Dyster said last week he was still working on how to maintain services in the face of the deficit and is facing “tough decisions” in that process which has delayed his presentation to lawmakers.
Dyster is believed to be pushing hard for some form of fiscal relief from Albany but the governor’s office has kept mum publicly on any plans to help the city in its hour of need.
It is not known at this point how much support Fruscione and Choolokian will have from their three colleagues on the council in their effort to assess fees on the warring parties who between them use a wide range of city services at a high cost to residents who do pay taxes.
Choolokian, in his toughest comments on the impasse to date, said as an elected official “it is incredibly frustrating to see our city be impacted by forces beyond our control. The current casino compact and the dispute between New York State and the Seneca Nation are matters that we have to live with, but that doesn’t mean we are not without options and shame on us if we don’t pursue those options in the best interests of our residents.”
Fruscione, equally frustrated over the crisis, said “we don’t have so much as a ballpark date for either the budget or the casino revenue. In a worst case scenario, the casino cash may never arrive. The City Council is not going to sit motionless, without ideas as to how to make this situation better.”
The council is working with a city attorney, Rick Zucco, to establish a fee schedule and the fees would be applied when the city fire or public works departments provide services within the 52 acres of the Seneca land or within Niagara Reservation State Park.
Mayor Dyster could not be reached for comment late Monday.