By Hellen Zaboulani
On Monday July 15th, Former Democratic Gov. David Paterson accepted a new role as vice president of Las Vegas Sands Corp., the casino company headed by Sheldon Adelson, a known supporter of and donor to Republican President Donald Trump.
“I think I’m doing what more Americans need to do right now. Mr. Adelson has a First Amendment right to vote for whoever he wants to vote for president and to spend his money giving contributions to whoever he feels would be the best candidate,” Paterson said on Monday.
“The acrimony that builds every day more and more between the two parties, I think this is a real example of what used to happen in this country where people didn’t even think about their political affiliations when business opportunity came through because business is about respect and as long as I feel respected, then I can work there.”
Paterson was the 55th Governor of New York, serving out the last three years of Eliot Spitzer’s term from 2008 to 2010. The 65-year-old Brooklyn native was also the Minority leader in the NY Senate from 2003 to 2006 in the 30th district, and a Senator for the 29th district from 1985 to 2002. Paterson began consulting for Sands this year, and supports the NY casino industry, arguing that the state should lower tax and licensing burdens to take advantage of the industry’s revenue. “The whole idea of bringing thousands of jobs into the state of New York, enticing people to stay rather than leave, enticing other people to move here and doing it through the entertainment industry that is gaming is an exciting new challenge for me,” said Paterson.
Upstate NY currently has four open commercial casinos. New York City’s metro area has three more on the way. Those will not, however, be given approval to begin construction until 2023, based on restrictions set into place in 2013. “Is it going to happen in 2023 or 2020? Why not start three years earlier?” said the former governor. “This is really a tremendous opportunity to create jobs in New York.”
As reported by the NY Post, Sands maintains that a metro-NY area casino program would add $1.5 billion in revenue for NY’s public transportation system and public education via an estimated license fee of $500 million per casino. The Las Vegas casino company also says the industry would bring 15,000 permanent union jobs, plus 15,000 union construction jobs, without government subsidies.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who succeeded Paterson as governor, has so far rejected talk of allowing early bidding on the casino licenses. “I am very skeptical about some casino deal put together by casino operators promising billions of dollars and everybody’s happy,” said Cuomo last year.
