The Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau recently released an in-depth report on the state Division of Gaming that revealed the State of Wisconsin saw a budget boost of more than $118 million from Indian gaming in fiscal 2005-2006 alone. Among other things, it shows that Governor Doyle is doing a good job making sure tribal gaming benefits the State of Wisconsin.
What’s really interesting is that had the Kenosha casino been operational during that time frame, the state would have likely seen about $40 million more during that fiscal period – enough to educate more than 3,700 Wisconsin public school children – as because of casino competition.
As part of their fight to stamp out competition, the Forest County Potawatomi like to brag that they contribute more to the State of Wisconsin annually than any other Indian tribe or Wisconsin business. A couple of years ago, they built a huge ad campaign around that very premise.
But as usual, the monopoly-focused Potawatomi only told part of the story. They completely skipped an important detail – that if the Kenosha casino becomes a reality, the Menominee will pay the state even more than the Potawatomi. In their ads, the Potawatomi boasted that they’d give $1 billion to Wisconsin over the next 25 years. Well, with the Kenosha casino in place, the Menominee would give $2 billion in the same time period. In other words, real casino competition in the region would result in $3 billion total to help educate Wisconsin children, care for Wisconsin seniors, strengthen Wisconsin businesses and make our state a better place. One can only imagine the positive impact that extra money would have had on our state’s budget.
By focusing on themselves instead of the big picture, Potawatomi’s leaders are cheating Wisconsin out of hundreds of millions of dollars, thousands of new jobs and other much-needed economic resources. Potawatomi’s fight against competition isn’t just hurting the Menominee – a very large, very poor Wisconsin tribe. It’s hurting the entire state and Wisconsin’s economic future.
Competition is a fact of life in the business world. Our hope is that Potawatomi’s leaders will soon recognize that reality and embrace the tremendous opportunity real casino competition will bring to Wisconsin. The LAB report is proof of competition’s positive economic potential.
Sign the online petition to help bring real casino competition – and its related economic benefits – to Wisconsin.
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