\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i60.tinypic.com\/10fp7cg.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\tALBANY – On the contentious issue of where to locate casinos in New York, two top union leaders are placing their bets on Orange County, not the Catskills.<\/p>\n
\tIn a letter to state gaming officials, state AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento and Hotel Trades Council President Peter Ward declare that locating a casino in Orange County, an hour from New York City, "will create the most jobs while generating the most revenue for New York’s schools.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tAnd with New Jersey expected to allow casinos in the northern part of the Garden State, an Orange County project would be a \u201cmeans to defend our state\u2019s gaming industry in its critical early stages,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n
\tThe letter was a slap at the Catskills, which is also competing for one of the gaming sites allowed under the law legalizing casino gambling in New York.<\/p>\n
\tBut the two union honchos said that a casino outside of Orange County \u201cwould be isolated and unable to compete.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIn a sense, non-Orange projects will create the same economic isolation that Atlantic City is now experiencing,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
\tThey did not specifically endorse any of the six projects proposed for Orange County, but they have labor agreements with each developer.<\/p>\n
\tThe letter left Catskills leaders livid.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThat\u2019s a real kick in the teeth,\u201d groused William Rieber, the supervisor of the Town of Thompson in Sullivan County.<\/p>\n
\tHe said the unions likely believe they can get more jobs for their members in Orange County.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt\u2019s the greed factor taking over,\u201d Rieber said of the unions. \u201cI don\u2019t like it and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s fair.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tSupporters of placing casinos in the Catskills say if Gov. Cuomo\u2019s goal is to provide boost the economies of communities most in need, the faded historic Borscht Belt area is far more desparate than more affluent Orange County.<\/p>\n
\tPotential New York City customers would have no reason to continue past Orange County to get their gambling fix, they say.<\/p>\n
\tThe casino commission must choose four projects from 17 proposals, including six for Orange County and three for the Catskills.<\/p>\n
\tAt least one must be approved for three different upstate regions.<\/p>\n
No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ALBANY – On the contentious issue of where to locate casinos in New York, two top union leaders are placing their bets on Orange County, not the Catskills. In a letter to state gaming officials, state AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8114\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}