Pataki Supports St. Regis Casino Project

In a recent letter to George T. Skibine, director of Indian Gaming Management for the US Department of Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs, Gregory J. Allen, senior assistant counsel to Pataki wrote, "The governor strongly supports the tribe's efforts to build a casino at the raceway site." He later requested that the BIA "expedite its review process and promptly notify this office once the potential environmental impacts have been satisfactorily addressed."

In April, the Bureau of Indian Affairs asked the tribe to address some issues in its environmental assessment of the project. A spokesman for the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, says the tribe will respond to the bureau's request within the next several weeks.The spokesman explains that once the tribe has submitted its modifications to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, it must await the agency's decision on whether to render a "Finding of No Significant Impact" on its environmental assessment of the casino project. If received, Pataki then must decide whether to concur with a two-part BIA Secretarial Determination issued in April 2000 that stated the Monticello Raceway casino venture was in the best interest of the tribe and had no significant impacts on the surrounding communities. The issue would then go back to the BIA to issue a final land into trust agreement, which would allow the casino project to commence construction.

The spokesman says BIA officials have previously stated that the agency could finalize a land into trust agreement within two months time after receiving Pataki's approval of the Secretarial Determination. He adds that the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe would wish to break ground on the project soon after that decision had been reached. Previously, he told GlobeSt.com that a groundbreaking could take place prior to year's end.