Seneca Tax-free Complex Was Big Mistake by Albany

“Listen, you dumb American fools: You are allowed to lose on this machine and to gamble on it ... but you must be a Seneca to own the machine and make sure bucks off of it,” --Love, Albany!

Seneca Casino and tax-free hotel. Seneca hotel is the largest in Western New York, with 26 stories and 602 rooms. It’s easy to be bigger than all the rest when you pay no taxes and your competition pays the highest property taxes in the nation, plus 8% sales tax and 5% bed tax.

They’re going great guns. Astonished, the locals ask, “How do they do it, these Seneca gods?”

“Without taxes,” — that’s the answer.

The casino and their complex, and the infrastructure leading to it, were paid for, directly or indirectly, by tax-paying Americans — while the Senecas pay none.

With 50 acres, and the right to open any business, the casino is the tip of the iceberg.

“The casino?” dumbfounded, the locals ask. “I thought that was all they got.”

A buffet, a pub, a “high-end” steak house, an Italian restaurant, an Asian restaurant, a glamour spa, conference center, bistro, coffee shop, nightclub, a 26-story, 604-room hotel, and gift shops. All of them tax free, all in direct competition with similar local businesses.

The ice skating rink, the convention center, local restaurants and taverns — closed to make way for the Senecas. Hotels foreclosed. Population dropping. Crime rising. Bankruptcies rising. Locals are pouring their entertainment money into slots, not spending it at cinemas or sporting events, local taverns or restaurants.

Sometimes, if they spend too much — it comes out of groceries or rent.

While American-owned businesses pay sales tax, income tax and property tax, Seneca businesses do not, while selling sweat shirts, baseball caps, T-shirts, sweaters, jackets, golf wear, costume jewelry, plush toys, jewelry, blankets, sculptures, TVs, high-end electronics, DVDs, golf clubs, cameras, diamonds, cigarettes, and more.

The Senecas have their own hotel, so when tourists come they can stay at the Seneca hotel bed-tax free.

Anybody who knows Niagara Falls, knows there are less American-owned restaurants, stores, and nightclubs now than before the Senecas came to town.

And who would want to open a hotel near the casino complex (without government subsidies), when they would have to compete with the Senecas who pay no taxes?

And when they build, the Senecas have no requirement to follow building codes, like Americans do.

The Seneca compact is destroying the town, and until we end Seneca preferences, by making all Americans equal to the
Senecas in Niagara Falls, we will continue our downward spiral.

Fools brought the Senecas to town, and gave away our precious downtown, on the crazed notion, that a tax-free foreign nation, smack dab amongst us, with the right to operate everything, tax free, would somehow lift us up.

It’s the biggest sucker bet we made.

Suckers go into the casino. They think they will win. They keep on betting and always lose. Sometimes more than they can afford.

And the eagle was shot by an arrow made of eagle feathers.

“But, how did we let them take over the town?”

“Albany,” is the answer.

“But can we fight back?” The locals ask but they don't have the pluck or courage to fight.

We could burn tires and blockade roads. We could charge tolls into the Seneca property or sue Albany on the faultiness of a compact that left locals on an insurmountably uneven playing field. We could shut off their water or charge them a premium for services.

Bewildered, some Americans in Niagara Falls ask, “Why does a person, because of his race — and tribe — have an advantage over other Americans?”

The apologists, referring to people long-dead with similar skin hues, say “’we’ savaged the red man.”

Was it my ancestors? Wait — they were in Italy at the time.

Unless, of course, they’re referring to reincarnation.

It’s utter nonsense.

It’s time to demand “equality with the Senecas" now!