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Good thing George Pataki has less than a year left as governor of New York.
Much more of his help and Niagara Falls might just fall right into the river.
The latest instance of Pataki's beneficence came last week with the news that he wants to settle the already-settled distribution of the local share of casino revenue by giving it all to USA Niagara Development Corp.
Scene Near N.F. Seneca Casino
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A couple of things about the announcement might surprise you. First, that USA Niagara still fancifully includes the word "development" in its name, since that implies that the state-implemented company actually develops anything (sorry, but building a $17 million conference center that's very impressive but even more underutilized and completely off the tax rolls doesn't count as "development," nor does an also-impressive $3.5 million streetscape that has yet to attract a single new business).
Secondly, the proposal revisits an issue torturously decided barely a month ago. Under the memorandum of understanding between Assemblywoman Francine Del Monte and state Sen. George Maziarz, the local share of $24 million from 2004 and 2005 -- in limbo during a prolonged political slap-fight -- would be spread among revitalization efforts at Niagara Falls International Airport, the Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center, the city school district, the Niagara Tourism and Convention Corp., the city and Niagara County.
If Pataki has his way, every penny of the local share of casino revenue for 2004, '05 and '06 will go directly to USA Niagara, similar to the arrangement involving the Seneca Allegany Casino in Cattaraugus County.
"We have two years in backed-up revenue, money that hasn't gone out the door," said Pataki spokesman Saleem Cheeks. "When you look down in Salamanca, it's already being invested in projects. It's a system that works."
Cheeks also stressed the parameters of the legislation that approved the state's compact with the Senecas.
"Our view is that the law is clear on what it's supposed to go to -- economic development -- and not other pet projects or things like that," Cheeks said.
Given the feeding frenzy among local politicos, like Niagara County's shameless lawsuit aimed at hijacking 75 percent of the local share, leaving the final decisions to a higher power almost makes sense. Almost. At least until you consider the higher power.
Pataki's plan -- similar to one shot down by the state legislature in each year since casino revenue became an issue -- would give USA Niagara $14 million or more a year to do as it sees fit. Therein lies the problem.
Past investment choices include $2 million for what was initially touted as the Niagara Explore Center.
"State Funds Leverage Major Investment in the Falls," screamed the headline on the October 2002 press release, which explained that the $2 million would be part of an $8.5 million development by the Cordish Company (yes, the same Cordish Company that's been letting the Rainbow Centre sit vacant and rotting for going on six years).
Less than a year later, visitors were able to "explore" one very large gift shop, then, if they happened to show up at the right random time, sit on a small chair and watch a short movie, about half of which had anything to do with Niagara Falls. Just in case they were too lazy to walk 200 yards or so and see the real thing, apparently. If Cordish spent a penny more than the $2 million invested by the state, it didn't show.
It's easy to see why Pataki would want to reward such efficient spending.
USA Niagara also "sold" the United Office Building to alleged developer Carl Paladino for $1, in return for avowed investment of millions in the long-vacant Art Deco skyscraper. At the umpteenth news conference touting the promised revitalization, officials said work would start in 2005. Or maybe 2006.
Sure enough, an enormous crane appeared outside the building one day last month. Just as quickly, it was gone, leaving no visible changes beyond a light placed on top of the flagpole on the building's roof, along with a new flag.
The United Office Building charade demonstrates the primary problem with USA Niagara and its parent bureaucracy, the Empire State Development Corp. Such agencies provide a smokescreen for politicians who don't know the first thing about attracting meaningful private investment, while allowing them to pay back generous campaign donors with gifts paid for by taxpayer dollars.
But when real economic development -- which means privately financed, tax-generating businesses -- comes along, the bureaucracies -- larded with political appointees, rather than people who have any idea how to do the work involved -- soil themselves again and again.
The most recent example came last week, when negotiations to bring a German chemical company to Niagara Falls fell apart when state officials couldn't, or wouldn't, bring themselves to part with the low-cost power needed to seal the deal.
Wacker Chemie AG was willing to spend $620 million to build on a 75-acre parcel at 47th Street and Niagara Falls Boulevard, according to the Buffalo News. Empire State Development and the New York Power Authority, evidently afraid of cutting into the "public benefit" agency's obscene profits (the authority told the state comptroller's office that net revenues for 2004 were pegged at $537.6 million), decided to let the promised 1,000 jobs go elsewhere.
That would have been real economic development, the kind that rejuvenates a local economy, or at least starts the process. And Empire State Development, led by chairman Charles Gargano, who qualified for the post by raising lots of money for Pataki's campaigns, couldn't get it done.
Then there's the $3.1 million the city is already slated to give USA Niagara in 2006. So if Pataki gets his wish, the City of Niagara Falls will pay the state's "development arm," supposedly hatched as a way to make sure state money gets spent here, more than $27 million in the coming year.
To spend in the best interests of the area, of course. Stop laughing.
Tack that on to the millions Albany already siphons out of the region, through the State Park system and the NYPA, and the one-sidedness of the relationship between Western New York and the state's government becomes painfully apparent.
Pataki certainly isn't the first governor to treat Western New York in general, and Niagara Falls in particular, as a governmental ATM machine. Few of his predecessors campaigned so vigorously upstate, though, or made so many promises left unfulfilled. On his watch, this end of the state remained stagnant -- if you take a very optimistic view of things -- while the rest of the country went through countless economic cycles.
Seneca Niagara was supposed to be his lasting gift to the region, even if it carved more than 50 acres out of downtown, taking them off the tax rolls forever.
Now he expects the area to cough up the relative pittance it receives in return for the cost of hosting the casino, and smile while doing it.
The rest of his budgetary wish list sounds very much like that of a man who seriously thinks he has a shot at bigger political things. Slashing Medicaid, for instance, should appeal to the members of the Republican base who get a perverse thrill from anything that might hurt the poor.
In reality, though, the move would only pass the cost on to New York's counties, which are already buckling under the weight of unfunded state mandates.
Maybe somebody other than Pataki and the people he's paying to tell him he's a viable national candidate in 2008 believe it to be so. But a presidential run would place his legacy from 12 years in charge of New York under close scrutiny. At least it's a quick read.
As promised in his first campaign, he signed a death-penalty law after years of Mario Cuomo's vetoes. It hasn't actually been used yet, but at least he's shown himself willing to kill people. That should play well in some places.
New York's myriad authorities, accountable to no one and useful for nothing, have grown and prospered on his watch. That's not exactly the "smaller government" supposedly sought by conservatives, but maybe his willingness to cut Medicaid will make up for it.
He did make good on his other main 1994 campaign vow -- to pass a state budget on time. It did take until 2005 to do it, but why get picky?
Locally, Pataki will be remembered for casinos that were built, factories that weren't and economy that isn't, by any conceivable measure, any healthier than when he arrived in Albany nearly a dozen years ago.
And for showing his disdain one more time on his way out the door.
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