Amid shouting from backers and opponents of plans for a video casino at Belmont Park, Nassau County legislators Monday declined to vote on a bill to replace Nassau Regional Off-Track Betting Corp.’s board of directors.
Chanting “take a vote,” about 60 opponents of the casino plan joined Legislator Carrie Solages (D-Elmont), who submitted the measure last week, in urging Presiding Officer Norma Gonsalves (R-East Meadow) to poll the Legislature, while about 15 casino supporters decried the bill.
“That bill is undemocratic. It’s bogus,” said Patrick Nicolosi, president of Elmont’s East End Civic Association and a vocal casino backer.
The bill, which would have replaced three OTB board members who favor the casino with three opponents, was not on Monday’s agenda and only had seven of the required 13 signatures from legislators to bring a vote.
It was the Democratic minority’s latest effort to stop OTB’s plan to eventually put a 100,000-square-foot video casino at the Elmont racetrack. The plan has drawn strong opposition from village officials and civic leaders in Floral Park, Elmont, Franklin Square and other surrounding communities.
Many backing the casino Monday were OTB employees and members of the Teamsters Local 707 labor union.
Along with Richard O’Kane, head of the Building & Construction Trades of Nassau and Suffolk Counties, they argued a casino would create hundreds of jobs with quality benefits and provide the county with much-needed revenue, rather than let it escape to other gambling halls, such as the Resorts World Casino at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens.
“Nassau needs this. They need the revenue. I go to Mohegan Sun (casino in Connecticut), I go to Aqueduct — I’d rather spend my money in Nassau County,” said Susan Oddo, an OTB shift manager and the Local 707 recording secretary, to cheers from casino backers.
“Thousands of families” would benefit from the casino jobs, O’Kane said. Nicolosi said members of other trade unions have told him they support the project.
Some opponents argued that residents of Belmont’s border communities would get few of those jobs, and they wouldn’t be among the highest-paying positions.
Others said the increased traffic and crime and decreased property values would be too high a price to pay for any economic benefits a casino would bring.
“There has to be a place where we can get jobs and build something that means something,” said Terry Paterno of Floral Park.
In a statement Wednesday, OTB said casino would generate $24 million in revenue for surrounding businesses.
The agency said it has heard suggestions from residents about what a community benefits agreement to share casino revenue with surrounding communities should include.
Casino revenue would support local police and programs, OTB said, and would get school districts additional state aid.
While it awaits approval for the permanent casino from the state Legislature, OTB plans to build a temporary gambling hall containing 1,000 video lottery terminals in a lot north of Belmont’s grandstand.
That will require approval from the state Office of General Services and the New York Racing Authority.
Since OTB’s plan was announced in December, residents, civic leaders and village officials have organized what they call a grassroots movement that’s gotten support from Democratic elected officials on the county, state and federal levels.
Many Republican officials, including legislators Richard Nicolello and Vincent Muscarella — whose districts include parts of Floral Park — and Hempstead Town Supervisor Anthony Santino have supported the plan.
Mangano originally included $20 million in casino revenue in the county’s 2016 budget, but has since reduced the estimate to $15 million, spokesman Brian Nevin said.
The opposition movement drew more than 2,000 people to a rally at Floral Park Memorial High School Jan. 12, and an online petition has garnered more than 2,000 signatures.
Nicolosi, who said he brought more than 100 casino supporters to the rally where they were met with boos, said he could bring much larger crowds of backers to public meetings but doesn’t “want to start any riots.”
Floral Park civic leader Nadia Holubnyczyj-Ortiz said an equally large crowd is expected for an anti-casino “March on Belmont” Jan. 30, starting at Floral Park Memorial High School and proceeding to the racetrack’s entrance.
