Cuomo now hates Genting

From Capital New York:

Two years ago, Andrew Cuomo made the Malaysian gambling conglomerate’s agenda his own, putting his full rhetorical and political might behind its ambitious plans for a $4 billion convention-center complex there—a complex the company also hoped would come complete with a full-scale casino. Now, the political darling has become an outcast, with its ambitions of being in on the ground floor of New York’s coming casino boom in doubt.

“Andrew hates them with a passion,” said one knowledgeable source, referring to Genting. “I think that he felt that they didn’t negotiate in good faith.”

The two parties are “on the outs,” said another.

Cuomo declined to comment for this story.

Genting spokesman Stefan Friedman, without getting into specifics, said, “Genting’s relationship with the state is strong, and the people of New York are the beneficiaries of that relationship.”

But you don’t have to be a Cuomo insider to read the tea leaves.

In early January, Cuomo made the convention center idea the centerpiece of his State of the State economic development strategy, relying on what some sources described as an unbinding memorandum of understanding between the state and the gambling company. In that same speech, he said he would seek to legalize casino gambling in New York State.

Given the still-preliminary nature of the negotiations with Cuomo, executives at Genting were taken aback to find their proposal center-stage at the State of the State. But by publicly committing himself to a still half-baked idea, Cuomo had given them leverage to negotiate, and they used it.

In the ensuing weeks, details about the Genting-Cuomo negotiations leaked out, and despite Cuomo’s protestations, those negotiations clearly linked the full-scale casino to the convention center. Not only did Genting want a lower tax rate for its gambling operations, but it also wanted regional exclusivity for its full-scale casino. Goode, the Genting lobbyist, even went on the record arguing: “The state has provided exclusivity to other projects. It’s a logical path. We don’t want to cannibalize our own market.’’

And then, somehow, everything fell apart.