Updated Dec. 18 to correct amount of annual payments to Brasher school district.

By JIMMY LAWTON

St. Lawrence County lawmakers have approved amendments to the St. Regis Mohawk land claim deal that would give $750,000 annually each to the towns of Brasher and Massena, as well as $500,000 annually to the Brasher school district.

The amendment to a Memorandum of Understanding passed 8 to 6 Monday night along party lines with Democrats favoring the proposal. Legislator Tony Arquiett abstained due to his affiliation with the New York Power Authority, which was one of the agencies involved in the agreement.

The amendment to the MOU had originally included a $500,000 payment to Massena Central School District as well, but that was removed after the ethics committee ruled that Democrats Jonathan Putney and Gregory Paquin may be violating ethnics standards by voting on an item that could financially benefit the school where they are employed.

Democrats elected to strip the Massena school funding from the MOU in order to ensure the amendment would pass, as Republicans have opposed giving any of the annual $4 million payment it is slated to receive under the agreement.

According to the MOU, the deal would force the tribe to pay the balance of gaming revenues they withheld in prior years. This would result in an immediate payment of $1.87 million for St. Lawrence County and $937,500 each to the towns of Brasher and Massena.

Once the final settlement has been negotiated, the tribe would be required to make a one-time payment of $1.5 million to St. Lawrence County.

The MOU also states that the tribe would continue to make revenue sharing payments required under the tribal-state compact. Those payments include an estimated annual payment of $1.45 million to St. Lawrence County and $725,000 each to the towns of Brasher and Massena.

It also includes a one-time payment of an additional $2 million and as well as an annual payment of $4 million, each going to St. Lawrence County. Combined, St. Lawrence County will receive approximately $5.45 million each year.

The amendment that passed Monday cuts half of the county’s annual $4 million payment, splitting $1.5 million between the towns of Massena and Brasher and gives the remaining $500,000 to Brasher Central School District.

Republican Joseph Lightfoot, who is expected to replace Putney as chairman of the board in January criticized Democrats for the amendment.

“St. Lawrence County is not in the business, has never been in the business and never should be in the business of funding schools. That’s between the school districts, the taxpayers and the state of New York,” he said.

Lightfoot said Democrats passage of the amendment was nothing more than an outgoing board attempting to bind the newly elected majority before it takes control of the legislature Jan. 2.

“There is nothing equitable about the amendment,” he said, adding that Massena school had been cut out of the amendment by Democrats simply to ensure its passage. “It’s purely political.”

Lightfoot has maintained that the county can’t afford to give away money given its financial state. He said the county’s infrastructure is failing and its fund balance is low.

He said he expects the new majority to revisit the measure in January. Overturning the measure will require a two-thirds vote, which the Republicans will have.

In earlier interviews Putney stated that the Massena and Brasher deserve to reap financial benefits associated with the land claim deal, because it is those towns that will be losing land. He said Lightfoot’s proposal is unjust because Brasher and Massena will be losing the any potential economic development on that land and the towns and schools deserve adequate compensation.

“Just because the county can keep all of the money, doesn’t mean it should,” Putney said in a prior interview.

Calls to legislators Paquin and Putney, as well as Massena Town Supervisor Joseph Gray were not immediately returned.