The agreement announced on Friday, May 8, between Oneida County and the Oneida Indian Nation is a milestone, representing an opportunity to move forward and resolve a conflict that has festered for decades. Major benefits of the Oneida County Partnership Plan include:

• Ending the thirty-year legal battle that has cost millions of dollars of taxpayer money, diverted the energy and attention of local government leaders, and damaged the relationship between local residents and members of the Oneida Nation for far too long;
• Ensuring that Central New York continues to benefit from the jobs, investment, and economic activity generated by the Oneida Indian Nation’s businesses, especially Turning Stone Resort Casino;
• Creating an environment that will encourage the Oneida Nation to expand its investment in the local economy, leading to hundreds if not thousands of new, quality jobs;
• Funding new economic development projects with tens of millions of dollars of payments from the Oneida Nation, revenue that will be shared by every community in Oneida County;
• Helping local governments hold the line on property taxes in these troubling economic times, due to the millions of dollars they will receive from the Oneida Nation.