NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. -- Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center said it received more than $14 million from Seneca Casino gaming revenue between 2002 and 2023.

President Joe Ruffolo said it helped pay for a number of important facilities and jobs and continued funding would go a long way toward the hospital's $58 million in outstanding capital needs.

"Every single dollar, every single dollar was invested in capital to provide new or expanded programs for a region," he said.

Under the compact, which expired at the end of 2023, New York state got 25% of the Seneca slot machine profits, before any other costs, and was required to share a portion of that money with casino host cities, Buffalo, Niagara Falls and Salamanca. Both sides agreed to extend those terms quarterly as they negotiate a new deal that state Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt, R-North Tonawanda, said doesn't appear imminent.

"At some point there will be a compact. I don't know when. I spoke to the Seneca Nation, the Seneca President J.C. Seneca this week and unfortunately the negotiations are really nowhere," he said.

However, when lawmakers struck the initial deal, they also passed a bill requiring Niagara Falls to allocate specific amounts of its share to stakeholders, including the hospital, the school district and the local tourism agency.

"Once that money ends up in the general fund, it will be very difficult, even if they wanted to, to get that money out because there's all kinds of costs and needs for a city," Ortt said.

That legislation, called 99-H, expired when the compact did but the Legislature did not renew it. Ortt and state Assemblyman Angelo Morinello, R-Niagara Falls, are sponsoring bills to reinstate 99-H, including guarantees the hospital and schools receive 5.5% of the city's casino money each, up to $750,000 annually, and the tourism corporation gets 7.5% up to $1 million.

"We're trying to be proactive, to have it on the table, have the discussions going in anticipation of a compact at some particular point," Morinello said.

The lawmakers said the Legislature does not have to wait for a new casino deal to pass this bill and their colleagues should be motivated to pass it because it helps vulnerable populations at no additional cost to the state.

Ort and Morinello said they expect the state will get less money under a new deal but any one of the stakeholders would rather ensure they get a percentage of something than nothing at all. Ortt said they can always re-examine the legislation once they know what is in a compact but he doesn't think they should be starting from scratch when that happens.

One other thing to note is even though the Senecas are putting the state's share of revenue in an escrow account while negotiations continue, the governor's office did front cities part of their share this past fall and the stakeholders at Friday's press conference said without 99-H on the books, they didn't see any of that money.