Editor’s Note: Last week Artvoice received a surprising letter from developer Carl Paladino, CEO of Ellicott Development Company, who has been a stalwart supporter of the city’s proposed downtown casino. In this letter, Paladino—frustrated by the current agreement announced by Mayor Byron Brown and the Seneca Gaming Corporation two weeks ago—sounds notably cooler to the prospect. He made similar statements in a debate this week with Sabres’ owner B. Thomas Golisano, an opponent of the proposed casino, which was sponsored by Leadership Buffalo exclusively for its membership. (One attendee said, in fact, that “it wasn’t much of a debate at all.” Paladino said he didn’t like gambling and that the deal as it stood was a bad one for the city. The only real point of difference between the two was that Paladino argued a casino couldn’t be stopped, and so the city had better get on the ball and negotiate a better agreement.) This is not a reversal; Paladino still supports a casino. Just not as much as he did two weeks ago.

Here’s his letter, in full, edited only for punctuation:

Dear Editor:

When the Senecas first proposed the compact, Mayor Masiello expressed concern about competition with our downtown Buffalo hospitality businesses, its hotels, restaurants and retail. President Schindler promised the mayor unequivocally that the intention of the Senecas was solely to operate a stand-alone casino in downtown Buffalo with no gourmet restaurants, hotels or retail.

He stated that his promise on behalf of the Senecas was sufficient, but in any event he would sign a Memorandum of Understanding.

He wanted the casino to be a win-win for the citizens of Buffalo and the Senecas. In reliance on the promise, governmental and private sector leaders agreed to support the compact in Albany.

Schindler left office and the subsequent regimes have sought to abrogate those promises. We sued to stop them from building a new Seneca City on 135 acres in Cheektowaga in favor of downtown where the casino will share growth with the other venues and give the community some upside.

The current proposal to settle the Buffalo casino issue is devoid of any reference to protecting our downtown hospitality businesses and tax base. To allow the Senecas to expand their casino franchise to the hospitality industry, in which they compete unfairly (being exempt from sales, bed and real estate taxes) would be shameful. Such unfair competition is destroying the tax base in Niagara Falls.

Now is the time to confront this issue.

The Senecas should be made to keep their promises.

Very truly yours,

Ellicott Development Company

Carl Paladino

Chief Executive Officer