Yesterday our magnificent Governor gave his State of the State address. With all of the pomp and circumstance that would you expect from a man who seems bent on higher office, the item that really stuck out to me was his comments on casino gambling. In his own declaratory fashion, Cuomo said that he is committed to three state-run casinos in Upstate New York. There would be none in New York City. They will be in high destination areas that will bring people from the City to these three locales.
The benefit for the three chosen sites are that 10% of the take will go to the localities and 90% will go to the state to be used for education. (Wasn't the lottery money suppose to go toward education?) A number of people in these parts got all a flutter because the Governor said that the 3 casinos will be in upstate. But what people don't realize is that for Cuomo upstate means anything above New York City. That's mean we are talking the Catskills, Saratoga, Thousand Islands, Lake Placid, etc. He is not talking about Western New York.
The reason he is not talking about Western New York is that the Seneca Nation has exclusive rights for gaming from the Niagara River to Rochester and from the Pennsylvania state line to Lake Ontario. From Governor High and Mighty's perspective we have our gaming, even though the City of Niagara Falls hasn't seen a dime for 3 years.
Cuomo's first 2 years in office has been a facade. He has tried to come across as a fiscal conservative while passing costs on to local governments as opposed to bringing about real reform which means mandate relief. 90% of the 3 state-run casinos is to go toward education yet where has the lottery money gone?? Obviously not toward education as Cuomo through his property tax cap is crippling school districts all across this state.
Cuomo reminds me of the Wizard of Oz. A lot a talk but don't pay attention to the man behind the curtain. He could careless about Western New York and especially Niagara County. He views us as a bunch of backwater hayseeds and why wouldn't he. The mayor of the largest city in the County (Dyster) has the persona of an absent-minded professor. One assembly person is an empty-headed blonde (Corwin) who's next idea will be her first and the other assembly person is a cross between the Pillsbury Doughboy and Zalinsky (Ceretto) from Tommy Boy. And then you have our esteemed long reining Senator ( Maziarz) who is nothing more than a big fish in a small pond. Throw in the bomb throwing majority caucus of the County Legislature and you want to know why Cuomo could careless about Niagara County.
In a nutshell: we're screwed
No comments:
Post a Comment