When the dwindling number of Niagara Falls business people who are still members of the Niagara USA Chamber of Commerce received their fall 2007 issue of the organization's "Business Insider" newsletter, many mistook it for a piece of campaign literature sent out by state Assemblywoman Francine Del Monte.
A mind-numbingly long pat on the back, apparently written by Del Monte herself, took up most of the cover page, as well as most of two additional pages inside the amateurish publication.
For the few who read it, the interminable list of "accomplishments" claimed by the assemblywoman for herself contained more fantasy than any three Stephen King novels rolled into one.
Perhaps the most egregious whopper to appear in the hagiographic accounts has to do with the distribution of the money from the local share of slot machine revenue from the Seneca Niagara Casino. Del Monte takes credit for the fact that a portion of that money has been earmarked to build a new terminal at the Niagara Falls International Airport and for Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center when, in fact, she fought tooth-and-nail against any of the revenue going anywhere besides the general fund of the city of Niagara Falls.
"This is outrageous," state Sen. George Maziarz said when asked about the Chamber's newsletter. "This is just a total rewriting of history."
Indeed, dozens of stories in the Buffalo News, the Niagara Gazette and the Niagara Falls Reporter, published during the agonizing process that kept the casino cash from flowing for nearly two years, back up Maziarz's account.
Del Monte opposed giving any of the money to the airport, the hospital and the city school district, vowing repeatedly that she would never agree to a settlement in which the city government got less than 100 percent of the money.
But Maziarz and then-governor George Pataki opposed giving all the money to the city, arguing that Mayor Vince Anello would use it simply to pay down debt and create a phony budget that maintained the current, boated level of city services, which is exactly what Anello has done.
"Giving this money directly to the city is like putting it on a rocket ship and blasting it off into a black hole," Maziarz said at the time.
Indeed. The only bricks and mortar projects undertaken so far using the casino money have been those initiated by the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority at the airport, by the Niagara Tourism and Convention Corp. on Third and East Falls streets and by the Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center Board of Directors at that facility.
Del Monte only relented on her position when Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver ordered her to during the state budget crisis of 2006.
Another whopper contained in the fanciful article has to do with Del Monte's role in the opening of the casino itself, and its impact on the economy of Niagara Falls.
"Assemblywoman Francine Del Monte's most significant economic development accomplishment was helping to bring the Seneca Niagara Casino to Niagara Falls," the article states. "The casino brought more than 2,000 jobs to the city and is pouring an estimated $200 million into Niagara Falls and the surrounding community."
"She helped, I suppose, by giving (then-mayor) Irene Elia someone to stand next to in the photos when the casino opened," Maziarz said.
Relatively few of the 2,000 jobs created at the casino complex have gone to Niagara Falls residents, and one can't help but wonder whether the "estimated $200 million" being poured into the local economy wasn't estimated by the assemblywoman's brother, John Del Monte, who has worked as a debt collector for the Senecas. In any event, and in conjunction with the draconian anti-smoking laws championed by Rep. Del Monte, the effects seem obvious.
In the Little Italy section of Pine Avenue, many of the 26 shuttered storefronts housed taverns and restaurants prior to the casino's opening, and the drop-off in business for even the most established restaurants there has been shocking. Likewise, restaurants have closed on Third Street and Niagara Street nearer to the casino, and there are no more entertainment venues along the Third Street "Entertainment District" than there were prior to the state squandering $4 million there in 2005.
"It's pretty tough to compete with a restaurant or nightspot that doesn't have to pay any taxes and permits smoking," said one tavern owner who asked to remain anonymous.
Why an embattled state representative who is likely to face stiff competition in both the primary and general elections less than a year from now would want to embellish her lackluster record as a perennial backbencher is obvious.
Why the Niagara USA Chamber of Commerce would choose to publish such misinformation is less so.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Dec. 11 2007 |