Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a statement Wednesday said he would back a bill design to aid the Vernon Downs racino in the Mohawk Valley and urged lawmakers from the area to pass a bill. 
A joint statement from Senate and Assembly lawmakers on Tuesday warned the racino needed a relief package or could face hundreds of jobs losses. 
“Three hundred good jobs are at stake in the Mohawk Valley right now, and every day that goes by without resolution is another day of distress for these workers and their families. The Governor frequently speaks about fighting to protect middle class jobs in upstate New York, so securing relief for Vernon Downs by leveling the playing field to compete with other similar business interests is the perfect opportunity for the Governor and the Legislature to demonstrate this commitment,” they said in the statement. 
“We understand there are other priorities the Governor wants to address, but we are respectfully calling upon the Governor to also include the future of Vernon Downs in any package of matters he plans to take up in an extraordinary session.”
Cuomo urged them to take up a bill “immediately” and said he would back it. Lawmakers are back in Albany on Wednesday for a special session of the Legislature. 
“I received a statement from nine Mohawk Valley legislators concerning Vernon Downs,” Cuomo said. “To be clear, I am 100 percent supportive of Vernon Downs and stand ready to sign a bill that will protect people’s jobs and ensure the viability of the facility. However, the Legislature has not passed any such bill. I urge Mohawk Valley Senators James Seward, Joseph Griffo, David Valesky, and Jim Tedisco, as well as Assembly members Anthony Brindisi, Bill Magee, Marc Butler, Ken Blankenbush, and Brian Miller to pass a bill immediately and I will sign it.”

PLEASE DELETE EASTER sunday  FROM NY PML SEC 109

see ny const art 1 sec 3



Claude Solnik
(631) 913-4244
Long Island Business News
2150 Smithtown Ave.
Ronkonkoma, NY 11779-7348 

Home > LI Confidential > Stop scratching on holidays

Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012


 Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.


“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.





About James L. Seward

Chairman, Majority Program Development Committee
REPUBLICAN, CONSERVATIVE, INDEPENDENCE PARTY
DISTRICT 51

Committees

State Senator James L. Seward's two decades plus of service as a state senator cap a lifelong interest in politics, public affairs, and state government. A native of Otsego County, Senator Seward attended Oneonta public schools and graduated from Hartwick College with a B.A. degree in political science. He also studied at the Nelson Rockefeller Institute of SUNY Albany. In 1999, Hartwick College honored Senator Seward with an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.
Senator Seward was elected to the state senate in 1986 and was appointed chairman of the Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee, where he developed a reputation as a skilled negotiator and effective spokesman for the senate majority on statewide energy issues.
He won enactment of the "Power for Jobs" program, which has helped retain and create thousands of jobs in New York. Seward worked to ensure that the state's telecommunications industry remained competitive, and introduced legislation to restrict minors' access to electronic obscenity. In 1990, he negotiated key reforms in the 1986 Low Level Radioactive Waste Siting Law.
In 1999, Seward assumed chairmanship of the Senate Standing Committee on Insurance, where he immediately set out to develop state policy that helps consumers and ensures New York's leadership in this vital segment of the state's financial services industry, employer of thousands of New Yorkers.  Seward has fought to broaden health insurance coverage and reform, and the writing of auto and property/casualty policies in a free, but fair, market that is sensitive to consumers' needs. He has pushed wider availability of health insurance for the uninsured and to reduce pressure on health insurance costs for workers and small business owners. He won passage of legislation in 2002 that extends group health insurance offered by chambers of commerce to sole proprietors of businesses, and in 2008 secured legislative approval of a bill to provide short term health insurance policies to young adults and college students. He sponsored the "Health Insurance Premium Integrity Act" to boost the percentage of premium dollars spent directly on health care, and was responsible for broadening health insurance coverage for voluntary firefighters and EMTs by letting them purchase policies through their municipalities.
Seward won statewide recognition for his "Freedom Plan" to match simpler, lower cost health insurance policies with federally authorized health savings accounts. The legislation is considered an innovative approach to addressing the rising cost of health insurance for employers and their employees. Seward has led the fight in New York against auto insurance fraud, a significant factor in rising auto insurance premiums. He is serving as immediate past president and nationally recognized leader in the National Conference of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL).
In 2011, he was asked by Senate Republican Leader Dean G. Skelos to assume a key post in the senate leadership team as assistant majority leader on conference operations.  The position allows Seward to work closely with senate leadership in establishing priorities and directing important legislation to the senate floor.
As chairman of the Senate Task Force on Volunteer Emergency Services, Seward was instrumental in establishing a low interest loan program for the capital needs and equipment purchases of voluntary fire departments and emergency squads in 1994. He has won funding increases for the program and for the state fire academy in order to improve training for firefighters. He has also served as chairman of the Senate Task Force on State and Local Emergency Preparedness following the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York City and Washington.
Senator Seward has been a consistent advocate for education, securing state aid for local districts to offset rising taxes and to support technology and special education initiatives within his schools. He strongly supported enactment of the STAR school tax relief program and has championed property tax relief.
Seward is an advocate for more jobs and business growth. In his district, Seward is a partner in local economic development. He works to save and create jobs in his district through state grants and loans to businesses and partnerships with local economic development agencies and local governments.
Responsiveness to his constituents through personal contact and district office hours is one of Senator Seward's strengths and his highest priority. He has been recognized for his advocacy and responsiveness by the Farm Bureau, the Alliance for Affordable Health Care, local chambers of commerce and many community organizations.
Senator Seward is a former Milford town justice and former chairman of the Otsego County Republican Committee. He was a delegate to the 1976, 1980, and 1988 Republican National Conventions and an alternate delegate in 1996.
Long active in community and civic affairs, Senator Seward is a regional advisory board member of Community Bank, NA, a trustee of Glimmerglass Opera, serves on the boards of directors of Pathfinder Village and the Catskill Symphony, and is a member of the Milford United Methodist Church.
Senator Seward and his wife Cynthia (née Milavec) reside in Milford. They have two grown children: Ryan and Lauren.



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