What’s a casino monopoly worth to the Potawatomi? Try $5.4 million…and counting.

The Forest County Potawatomi’s no-competition campaign has left many people shaking their heads. They see the ridiculous ads, read about the outrageous lobbying targets and watch in disbelief as Potawatomi’s leaders use bogus economic claims, publicity stunts, front groups and other expensive tactics to try to kill the Menominee Tribe’s proposed Kenosha casino, dodge competition and lock in Potawatomi’s Southeast Wisconsin gaming monopoly.

Then people ask: How far will Potawatomi’s leaders go to hurt a fellow Wisconsin tribe, lose jobs and destroy economic opportunities for the Badger State – all in the name of keeping their own off-reservation casino competition-free?

We don’t know how far they’ll go, but we can tell you how far they’ve already gone. As far as at least $5.4 million can take them.

Check out “A Litany of Greed,” a new detailed, white paper analysis of the Forest County Potawatomi Community’s relentless and costly fight to stifle competition and preserve the monopoly its Milwaukee casino has held for nearly two decades. We’ve broken down Potawatomi’s anti-competition agenda for the past four years, added supporting materials and examples as backup, and calculated the millions upon millions of dollars Potawatomi leaders have already funneled into efforts to kill the Kenosha casino and keep hold of their monopoly.

The $5,415,284 total is shameful – that’s enough money to educate more than 500 Wisconsin public school students for one year, or buy a year’s worth of food stamps for nearly 2,500 hungry Wisconsin families. And as the Kenosha casino proposal continues to make steady progress (and it does), one can only anticipate Potawatomi’s battle against competition will become even more intense, and more expensive. In fact, now that the budget matter is resolved in Madison, we’ve heard rumblings that Potawatomi’s anti-competition battle will rev up once again.

Competition is at the heart of a strong economy and respect for healthy business competition is part of our state’s proud, progressive heritage. (Fightin’ Bob hated monopolies!) But Potawatomi’s leaders don’t seem to care. As “A Litany of Greed” reveals, Potawatomi’s anti-competition activities are part of an expensive and sophisticated campaign of misinformation, hypocrisy and hubris. The sole goal is to eliminate competition – and Southeast Wisconsin and the entire state will be hurt if Potawatomi succeeds.

Take a look.

Denounce Potawatomi’s pro-monopoly tactics and support free and fair competition for Wisconsin by signing the online petition.

Legislative Audit Bureau report underscores how casino competition can benefit Wisconsin’s economy

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.

Detroit celebrates regional benefits of competition as one of 3 permanent downtown casinos opens for business

They’ve got the right idea in the Motor City, where they celebrated last week’s opening of the new, $800 million MGM Grand Detroit resort, hotel and casino complex with celebrities, fireworks and a black-tie gala. The ritzy affair marked more than the opening of a new business – it marked a new era in competitive gaming that officials say will create thousands of jobs, provide major fiscal benefits and help put Detroit on the map as a regional entertainment destination.

The MGM Grand Detroit competes with two other downtown casinos, the MotorCity Casino and Greektown Casino. All three started out as temporary facilities – and despite heavy competition, they thrived. MotorCity casino opened its permanent gaming space in June and will debut a 17-story, 400-room hotel in November. Greektown plans to open a major casino and hotel complex in October 2008.

Here’s the kicker: All three of these multimillion-dollar, large scale entertainment centers are within five miles of each other. Five miles!

Casino competition has been good for these businesses, for Detroit, and for the State of Michigan as a whole. Check out the facts:

• Despite operating within mere miles of each other, all three competing Detroit casinos reported revenue increases in January 2007, according to the Detroit Free Press. According to the newspaper, MotorCity reported a 7.1 percent jump, MGM Grand Detroit reported a 4.5 percent leap and Greektown reported a 2.3 percent rise. In 2006, the three casinos raked in a combined total of $1.3 billion in revenue, a 6.1 percent increase from the previous year.

• The casinos have provided hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue for Detroit and the state of Michigan, the Detroit News reports.

• Even with three casinos operating in the City of Detroit (and 20 casinos in Michigan), the Detroit News reported in February that Michigan State Lottery revenues had increased by 38 percent over the last four years – generating an additional $141 million for the state School Aid fund.
  

The Forest County Potawatomi should take notice – multiple studies have shown that two competitive casinos can succeed and thrive in Southeast Wisconsin, bringing the region many of the economic benefits Detroit is realizing through casino competition. (Remember, Detroit has three major casinos within 5 miles!)

Detroit’s competitors even have a better attitude than the monopoly-driven Potawatomi. When Casino Windsor in Canada, just across the river from downtown Detroit, announced a major expansion in 2005, Detroit’s casino operators embraced the additional competition. The Detroit Free Press quoted a Greektown spokesman as saying, “We welcome any good competition,” a Greektown Casino spokesman said. Said a MotorCity spokeswoman: “The addition of more quality hotels, convention space and entertainment options will only prove to be of value to the entire area.” A spokesman for Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was positive, as well. “It’s good that the city of Windsor is remaining competitive,” he said.

It’s nice to see businesses and a community thriving by embracing competition. We’d love to see it in Wisconsin, as well.

Support competition and its economic benefits for Southeast Wisconsin by signing the online petition.

Update: There’s another heavy-hitter in Potawatomi’s D.C. lobbying lineup (you remember, the folks who lobbied the Executive Office of the President)

The media are starting to catch on to the Potawatomi lobbying story we told you about last week. Check out this item from today’s WisPolitics.com “DC Wrap,” which points out that the Forest County Potawatomi spent more to lobby federal officials than any other Wisconsin tribe during the first six months of 2007.

WisPolitics reports that Wisconsin tribes spent a total of $480,000 lobbying the federal government between Jan. 1 and June 30 of this year. The Potawatomi were responsible for 63 percent of that – a whopping $300,000!

We’ve already told you about the $200,000 the Potawatomi paid D.C. powerbroker Ed Gillespie and others to carry the tribe’s pro-monopoly message in the Nation’s Capital. Additional documents now disclose a third-heavy hitting firm (and another $100K payment) on the Potawatomi’s D.C. lobbying roster.

The reports, filed with the Clerk of the House of Representatives and the Secretary of the Senate, reveal that the Potawatomi paid for the services of two lobbyists from the big-namee firm of Barbour Griffith & Rogers.

Those lobbyists include the firm’s president, a well-known Republican operative who served as chief of staff for a former Wisconsin Governor and Cabinet member. (Ironically, his former boss signed the Menominee Tribe’s 2000 Compact with the State of Wisconsin – the document authorizing the establishment of a Menominee casino in Kenosha in the first place.) The other is the firm’s vice president, another Republican insider who has served in several high-level White House positions and as chief of staff to a former Cabinet member.

While Potawatomi’s other hired guns went so far as to reach into the Executive Office of the President (!), the new reports show BGR’s lobbyists focused their attention on the U.S. House of Representatives and the Department of the Interior (the agency currently reviewing the Kenosha casino proposal). Their subject matter is listed only as “Tribal Interests.” Of course, we all know that Potawatomi’s biggest interest is in sidestepping competition and preserving the monopoly of their off-reservation Milwaukee casino – even if they have to change the law or curry favor among federal officials to do so.

BGR’s folks are no amateurs. Other BGR clients include international (and deep-pocketed) giants like IBM, Lockheed Martin, Louis Vuitton – Moët Hennesy, Pfizer…even the Republic of India and the State of Qatar. Their Web site touts the firm’s expertise at “stopping or changing harmful policy before it can take effect,” and Potawatomi’s leaders seem to be pulling out all the stops when it comes to thwarting what they see as a harmful threat to their monopoly.

We’re sure there’s more to come – and you can be sure we’ll bring it to you.

Send a real message to officials in Madison and Washington by signing the online petition for casino competition in Southeast Wisconsin.

Potawatomi’s fight for monopoly goes all the way to the Executive Office of the President of the United States

They haven’t been able to get Kenosha voters, the Wisconsin Legislature or Congress to clamp a government lock on their monopoly, and now it looks like Potawatomi leaders may be eyeing a more powerful ally in their fight against competition. Newly uncovered documents show that Potawatomi’s federal lobbying team had a pretty lofty target during the first half of 2007 – the folks at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

According to reports (look here and here) filed with the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House of Representatives, the Forest County Potawatomi Community is lobbying the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). Reports show the Potawatomi had 20 high-priced lobbyists on the ground in Washington during the first six months of 2007. The group – which included one of D.C.’s best-known power brokers and former, high-level Congressional staffers – lobbied on Land Into Trust, Gaming Reform, Tribal Economic Development and other issues before the EOP, House, Senate and U.S. Department of the Interior.

While the reports are deliberately vague about exactly what Potawatomi’s lobbyists talked about with the President’s closest advisers (though we doubt they were trying to arrange a special White House tour), they do show that the tribe plunked down at least $200,000 for D.C. lobbying from Jan. 1 to June 30 of this year. That’s right – nearly a quarter of a million dollars to help carry Potawatomi’s anti-competition message to the highest offices in the land. No one ever said hanging on to a monopoly was cheap.

Potawatomi’s leaders have certainly shown a lot of bravado in their campaign against competition, but this one takes the cake. Other companies that lobbied the EOP during the same time frame included heavy hitters like DuPont, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Exxon Mobil, the National Rifle Association, General Motors, Ford Motor Company and General Electric. The Potawatomi are playing in the big leagues, apparently believing that preserving their Southeast Wisconsin monopoly is a matter of such national importance that it belongs on the agenda of the President of the United States and his closest advisers.

Candidly, we think it’s an awfully tall order to expect a Republican administration to stand in the way of free enterprise and open competition. After all, the GOP understands that competition benefits American consumers – it’s the American way. But Potawatomi’s leaders have shown they’ll stop at nothing to sidestep competition, and this is yet another example of how far they’ll go to keep hold of their monopoly.

Speaking of the President’s closest advisers, we’ve also learned that that D.C. power-broker mentioned above is now one of them! That’s right, he’s no longer part of Potawatomi’s lobbying lineup because he took a new job – as special counsel to the President. Yes, all of us who care about fair competition in Southeast Wisconsin should feel real good that Potawatomi’s former lobbyist is now an adviser to the White House.

The plot thickens – and we’ll keep you up to date on the latest developments with Potawatomi’s swanky K Street crew.

It’s a long road to the Potawatomi reservation…

A favorite refrain in the Potawatomi battle against competition is to cite the distance between the Menominee Reservation and Kenosha. They never miss a chance to trumpet claims of “reservation shopping,” a buzzword coined by pro-monopoly tribes that suggests the Menominee have no tie to the Kenosha area because their reservation is in northern Wisconsin.

That’s just plain false. And it underscores yet another one of those “I can’t believe the Potawatomi are trying to peddle that hypocritical bunk” moments.

First of all, Dr. David R. M. Beck, a professor of Native American studies at the University of Montana, points out that the Menominee Tribe has resided in Wisconsin for thousands of years on lands that include Southeast Wisconsin and Kenosha. In a study for the Menominee Tribe, Beck says:

“The southern region of Old Menominee country was vast – it extended south of the Milwaukee River into northern Illinois, along the shores of Lake Michigan and west to the Mississippi River. This was long a vital place for the Menominee Indians. Kenosha lies at the center of the eastern reaches of this southern region of old Menominee country.”

Perhaps the irony of having their own off-reservation Milwaukee casino located in the middle of a valley named for the Menominee Tribe is lost on the Potawatomi. But we doubt it.

It seems the Potawatomi need lessons in history and geography. It’s especially laughable that in their zeal to keep their monopoly, the Potawatomi are complaining – quite loudly – about the distance between the proposed Kenosha casino site and the Menominee Reservation. It’s 160 miles – we admit it.

But the distance between Potawatomi’s Milwaukee casino and its northern Wisconsin reservation spans 182 miles – even farther than the distance between Menominee and Kenosha. Here’s a map that proves it.

Oops.

Help stamp out Potawatomi’s pro-monopoly hypocritical bunk by signing the online petition.

Potawatomi monopoly still has taxpayers paying some healthcare costs

The Forest County Potawatomi, whose competition-free Milwaukee casino brings in millions and millions of dollars every week and has made them one of the richest tribes in the state, apparently don’t mind letting Wisconsin taxpayers pick up the healthcare tab for some of their casino employees.

Recent figures from the State Department of Health and Family Services place Potawatomi among the top 50 employers with the most participants in BadgerCare, the state’s tax-funded healthcare program for the working poor.

The state anticipates taxpayers will pick up more than $160,000 in BadgerCare costs for Potawatomi employees in 2007. In stark contrast, Potawatomi’s Milwaukee casino currently pulls in about $250 million a year – and anticipates doubling that when its expansion is complete.

The Potawatomi aren’t shy about asking the government for help – first, to preserve their monopoly and also, to have taxpayers pay some of their employees’ doctor bills.

Sign the online petition to bring more good jobs – with real healthcare and other benefits – to Southeast Wisconsin through fair casino competition.