LITTLE VALLEY — Cattaraugus County, the city of Salamanca and Salamanca City Central School District each received their share of Seneca gaming funds from the state on schedule last month.
The quarterly payment of $1.24 million was divided among the three according to an agreed-upon formula that covers the amount of property taxes lost when a Native American purchases property on the Seneca Nation’s Allegany Territory, including most of the city of Salamanca.
The city received $787,796, the county got $417,006 and the school district got $35,298, according to County Administrator Jack Searles.
The state receives a 25% share of slot machine revenues and shares 20% of that amount with municipalities in Western New York that host the Seneca Gaming Corp.
The county earlier this year received $8.3 million, the city got $21.6 million and the school district got $1.4 million — the outstanding amount the Seneca Nation owed New York state after ceasing casino payments in 2016. The Senecas claimed the 2002 compact did not include payments after 14 years. The state argued otherwise and an arbitration panel and the courts agreed.
The initial retroactive payment came in May. The first quarterly payment for this year came early last month.
By that time, county lawmakers had already agreed to use the $8.3 million to establish an economic development fund.
The first disbursement from the fund was $800,000 toward a $1.2 million sewer project connecting Exit 24 of Interstate 86 to the village of Allegany’s wastewater collection system.
The $417,006 received from the state in August automatically went into the county’s economic development fund. Searles noted that the resolution created the fund and called for all deposits from 2022 to go into the fund.
There currently are no application forms to request funding from the county’s new economic development fund.
Searles said all decisions on the use of the economic development funding are up to the full legislature. Members of the Development and Agriculture and Finance committees would act on recommendations brought before the committees by Searles.
