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The ink wasn't even dry on the compact agreement between the Seneca Nation of Indians and the State of New York before two real geniuses of the Niagara County Legislature started making public threats.
Legislature Chairman Bradley Erck and Sam Granieri of Niagara Falls said they were prepared to take their complaints to Washington in an attempt to queer the whole casino deal if the county wasn't cut in for a piece of the action. Like chiselers everywhere, they want theirs before two cents is even generated.
We're used to Erck treating the City of Niagara Falls as a cash cow for the rest of the county. The Lockport Democrat led the charge to strip the city of its bed tax revenues and combine them with relatively minor income generated from hotels throughout the county so everyone gets a "fair share." What is this, Communist Russia?
But Sam Granieri is supposed to represent the Falls. He's expressed interest in running for mayor here! Last week, in Lockport, he as much as told the people who voted for him, "Look, I could care less about you. I'm playing politics here, so leave me alone."
The bald-faced greed is nauseating.
If there was a chance in hell that the Legislature wouldn't simply squander any Seneca money it might receive, as it did to what should have been a tobacco settlement in excess of $100 million, there might be room for debate. But no such chance exists. The tobacco settlement fiasco has made us the laughingstock of the nation. A debate on Niagara County's level of fiscal responsibility would be redundant.
A few weeks ago, in conversation about another problem, Legislator Renae Kimble said something to me that was deeply profound. A born and bred Democrat for whom switching to the Republican Party might really be a smart career move, Kimble said, "I never thought it would be worse with the Democrats in control, but it is."
To add insult to injury, Niagara Falls was recently slapped with a bill from the county for more than $800,000 connected to the city's withdrawal from the county's employees' insurance system.
Paying the bill will more than wipe out Mayor Irene Elia's phony 2002 "budget surplus," hyped several times a week on the pages of a discredited local daily. The city's option to paying is to become involved in a lawsuit with the county.
For her part, Elia last week displayed behavior bordering on the schizophrenic, in that she endorsed both the Como Restaurant's plans for an expo center/hotel complex on the site of the Fourth Street Goose's Roost and the state's plan for a convention center at the Falls Street Faire on Third Street.
Attorney John Bartolomei, who has made a career out of successfully representing tourist district developers against the ridiculousness of inept local politicos and their lawyers for more than a decade now, put it succinctly.
"Goofy, unstable government has now given way to silly, unstable government," he said. "Certainly, litigation and reneging on contracts are still the order of the day."
State Sen. George Maziarz was also clearly upset by the fact that -- despite years of hard work by the Seneca Nation, the state and dedicated, volunteer citizens like Frank Roma -- lightweight latecomers such as Erck, Granieri and Elia would be so quick to urinate publicly on the plan.
"Putting money into the municipal government, putting money into the county government, is like throwing it down a black hole. It will never be seen again," Maziarz said. "This is something that's been worked on for a long time and to try and dismantle it now borders on the criminal."
In any event, our local elected officials -- Erck, Granieri and Elia being the most prominent -- are prepared to sell us down the river. They are prepared to destroy the one chance Niagara Falls has had at real development in the past 30 years, based on the egotistical notion that do-nothings like themselves didn't have enough say in the matter. Sick, but true.
You figure it out. I sure can't. Are they stupid? High? Crooked?
Or just plain mental?
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | August 27 2002 |