Opponents and backers of a new Kenosha casino are making their case as Gov. Scott Walker considers whether to approve the project.
Both sides held rallies Tuesday in Madison.
Menominee chairman Craig Corn said at a Tuesday news conference that approval of a casino in Kenosha will help pull his tribe out of poverty.
Corn said the tribe has been working with Walker to find a pathway for him to approve the project that’s been in the works for two decades.
“We are ready to do whatever it takes to come to an irresistible offer,” Corn said.
Opponents of the project, including representatives of national tea party groups, say building the casino will only empower private unions who will in turn organize to defeat Walker.
Walker is expected to announce his decision this week.
The Menominee won federal approval for the casino in August, but Walker has the final say. The governor has said he wouldn’t green-light the project unless there was community support, no net increase in gambling and Wisconsin’s other 10 tribes approve the plans. The Ho-Chunk Nation and the Forest County Potawatomi oppose the idea.
Walker met with leaders from the Menominee, Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk and Oneida tribes behind closed doors last month and issued daily updates last week outlining the issues he is considering in the decision.
Walker noted in a statement Friday that the new casino is projected to generate about $454 million a year and have 3,100 slot machines, questioning whether the much larger proposed casino at the closed Dairyland Greyhound Park in Kenosha would represent an increase in gambling.
The Menominee tribe argues there would be no increase because it plans to close a small casino on reservation land and the new one would be located at the closed Dairyland Greyhound Park.
Dairyland Greyhound Park made about $20 million annually at its height, and the reservation casino has only 30 slot machines.
“Do these two smaller operations actually offset the increase in gambling in the much larger proposed casino?” Walker said.
Supporters of the Menominee plan, including local elected officials from the Kenosha area and workers from construction industries, say the promise of 1,400 temporary jobs to build the casino and 3,300 more permanent ones was too good to pass up.
Tribes that oppose the project say, contrary to the Menominee’s claims, a casino in Kenosha, just 40 miles from the Potawatomi’s operation in Milwaukee, will result in a loss of 3,000 jobs in the Milwaukee area.
Proponents of the casino also argue if it’s not built in Kenosha, one will be constructed in northern Illinois, sucking money out of Wisconsin.
The Menominee have been pushing to open an off-reservation casino in Kenosha for more than 20 years, saying it will help pull their people out of poverty. The reservation covers most of Menominee County, one of the most economically depressed areas in Wisconsin.
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