LIKE Zelig, the memorable Woody Allen character with a knack for transforming himself into someone different, Gov. Pataki has done it again. In his latest reinvention, the governor has switched from a staunch opponent of Indian-run casinos to one of their biggest boosters.
Pataki garnered major headlines recently by announcing a deal that could mean three new Indian-run casinos in the Buffalo/Niagara Falls region. He pitched the agreement as a way to boost the sagging western New York economy.
Like many of Pataki’s policy shifts of recent years, the change of heart seemingly has more to do with polls and politics than any real core belief on the issue. It was Rick Lazio’s gaffe of saying the upstate economy had turned the corner that helped propel Hillary Clinton into the Senate.
Gearing up for a likely re-election bid, Pataki was not going to make the same mistake. He knows that a casino in Niagara Falls, Canada, is drawing New Yorkers over the border in droves. And he knows many in that region want casinos to help boost tourism.
But it was just six years ago that Pataki said no dice to the concept.
Shortly after he took office in 1995, a proposal surfaced for an Indian-run casino in the Catskills. The locals, like those in Buffalo, said it would provide a much-needed jump-start for the faded historic resort town.
“I think it’s absolutely wrong,” Pataki said in March 1995, when asked about the plan. “I’m very concerned that we’re going to see proliferation of casinos and entertainment complexes that pay no property taxes, pay no sales taxes and no income taxes.
“I don’t think we should allow it to the extent we have the legal authority to stop it.”
Not long after, the governor softened a bit. Maybe he could support a new Indian casino, but something would have to be in it for the state – such as giving it a share of the profits.
Soon after, yet another caveat: There would be no casino deal that didn’t include a settlement of the state’s long-standing issues with the Indians – including land claims and sales taxes owed on cigarettes and gasoline sold to non-Indians on reservation land.
And before talks even got serious, the governor said he would not sign off on anything until the state developed a formal process to deal with all Indian casino proposals in a uniform manner.
Meanwhile, the governor continued to talk up his preferred option – legalizing non-Indian casinos. But when the Legislature was on the verge of taking action on this in January 1997, the governor was conspicuously silent.
One lobbyist said when it became apparent the measure was heading for defeat in the Senate, he called Pataki personally to ask that he get involved by calling fence-sitting senators. “He told me, ‘That’s your job.’ I couldn’t believe it. He wouldn’t do anything, and it died.”
Now, several years later, Pataki swoops in to Buffalo and Niagara Falls, pushing a deal for up to three casinos run by the Seneca Indian Nation that achieves little of his stated goals.
* The casinos will still operate tax-free. (However, the Seneca Indians will pay the state for the exclusive rights to have slot machines – devices many believe are prohibited by the state constitution. )
* And there was no agreement to settle the land claim issues or to have the tribe pay the sales taxes owed on cigarettes and gasoline sold to non-Indians on reservation land.
“In the end, none of that mattered more than the headlines he grabbed in a place he thinks he could be vulnerable next year,” said a Republican senator and Pataki supporter.
Whether the casinos actually come to fruition almost doesn’t matter. The governor can take credit for doing his part.
To paraphrase the title of another Woody Allen movie, Pataki knows better than most to “Take the Headline and Run.”
Kenneth Lovett is an Albany correspondent for The Post.
