New York voters went all in Tuesday on Gov. Cuomo’s pledge to create jobs, increase school aid and reduce taxes by adding up to seven Las Vegas-style casinos across the state — eventually including one in the Big Apple.
With 97 percent of the vote counted, New Yorkers had voted 57-43 percent for the proposal, according to the state Board of Elections.
Cuomo called the results “a big win for local governments, school districts and taxpayers across New York state.”
Under the governor’s plan, the first four casinos will be built upstate, and a New York City casino could open in seven years, although some casino operators say the law may allow that to happen even sooner.
“This vote will keep hundreds of millions of dollars spent each year in neighboring states right here in New York, while increasing revenue for local schools, lowering property tax taxes and bringing proper regulation to the industry,” Cuomo said.
He used last-minute, industry-funded robo-calls to urge support for the measure, which his number-crunchers say could rake in $430 million for the state annually, with $238 million earmarked for education.
Opponents — including good-government groups, the state Conservative Party and the state’s Catholic bishops — warned that the gambling palaces would increase social ills and fail to deliver on their “rosy” promises.
New York already has five Indian-run casinos, as well as electronic slot machines at nine racetracks and numerous lottery games.
In other questions on the ballot, voters were overwhelmingly opposed to raising the mandatory retirement age to 80 for state Supreme Court justices, but supported measures to:
- Let the NYCO mining company expand its operations onto 200 acres of state land in the Adirondacks in exchange for adding about 1,500 acres of land to the state’s forest preserve.
- Give disabled military veterans additional civil-service credit when applying for a government job or promotion.
- Allow local governments to continue exceeding constitutional debt limits in order to build or maintain sewage facilities.
- Settle a century-old dispute between residents and the state over ownership of upstate land.