Partnership Plan officially dead - voted down by Ways and Means
Story Created:
May 27, 2009 at 3:38 PM EST
Story Updated:
May 27, 2009 at 5:17 PM EST
UTICA, N.Y. (WKTV) - Nearly three weeks after the agreement, in principle, was reached between Oneida County and the Oneida Indian Nation, the deal is off - voted down by the county's Ways and Means Committee.
The Ways and Means committee, of the Oneida County Board of Legislators, is the final approval committee before the full Board of 29 legislators vote on proposed legislation. The Ways and Means Committee is made up of 11 board of legislators. Both the Republican Majority Leader, and the Democratic Minority Leader are part of the committee. The other nine people are appointed to the committee, by the Chairman of the Oneida County Board of Legislators.
This afternoon, the plan was voted down by the Ways and Means Committee by a vote of ten to one.
The lone 'yes' vote came from Michael Damsky, a republican representing New Hartford. Just this past week, Damsky announced he would be ending his time as a legislator at the end of his term.
"I think, quite frankly, if you value the amount of money...we've been offered 50 million...55 million dollars...if we wait for another 5 or 10 years, if you just do the time value of that money, we probably have to start in 5 or 10 years with them offering us 87, 90 million, because that's the same amount of money it is today in ten years," Damsky said. "We'd have to start out at 90 million...150...250 million...do people think we're going to get that kind of money? I don't think so."
Now that the Ways and Means Committee has voted down the plan, it will not make it to a vote in the full board, and it is now, officially, dead.
