BUFFALO — Seneca President Todd Gates said he expects to meet with Gov. Andrew Cuomo later this month on the issue of casino payments.

The two leaders had tentatively scheduled a meeting for Tuesday, but the Governor’s office notified the Senecas he could not meet with them that day.

The Seneca president spoke outside the Buffalo History Museum where he had earlier participated in Indigenous Peoples Day.

The Seneca Tribal Council announced in March that its next quarterly payment to New York state would be the last under the Seneca Gaming Compact. The state immediately challenged the assertion.

The compact, enacted in 2002, was for 14 years with an option to renew for an additional seven years if neither party objected. The compact did not address the question of whether the Senecas’ 20 percent share of slot machine revenue would continue in the last seven years of the agreement.

The state in turn shared 25 percent of the slot machine revenue from the Seneca Gaming Corp. with the municipal governments of Salamanca, Buffalo and Niagara Falls.

In Salamanca, for example, city officials were expecting $5.9 million in casino revenue this year, more than half of its $10 million budget.

“They have some money to keep them going,” Gates said of the city of Salamanca. “We’re willing to help. I’ve talked with Mayor Mike Smith. We’ve talked to local state and federal representatives. We’re looking for a path forward.”

Gates admitted the issue is “stressing everybody out,” Buffalo and Niagara Falls less so than Salamanca. The Salamanca Central School District and Cattaraugus County also receive a share of the casino revenue. They use it toward the loss of tax revenue when enrolled Senecas buy property in the city and it comes off the tax rolls.

The Senecas have paid New York state more than $1 billion in casino revenues since 2002 under the compact.

The Senecas casinos in Salamanca, Buffalo and Niagara Falls are taking a smaller slice of the gambling pie since New York state began encouraging more racetracks and new casinos just outside the Senecas’ exclusive territory under the compact, Gates said.

“We’d like to help our neighbors and move forward,” the Seneca president said.

Earlier in the compact, the Senecas had put their state payments in escrow, claiming the state had violated the compact by boosting casinos and racetracks in Hamburg and Batavia. That was resolved without the Senecas entirely paying the state back.

(Contact reporter Rick Miller at rmiller@oleantimesherald.com. Follow him on Twitter, @RMillerOTH)