Wisconsin Governor: Kenosha casino decision ‘imminent’

2015-01-23

Reading time 1:49 min

(US).- Gov. Scott Walker has less than a month to make a decision on the Menominee Nation’s proposed casino in Kenosha. “It will be imminent. It’s pretty quick here,” Walker said. “As we get closer to the budget, it’s pretty clear that without some major changes in the compact that Jim Doyle approved about a decade ago, there’s a huge risk to the state that we could lose about USD 100 million or more just over the next few years let alone the hundreds of millions beyond that in the future, and that’s a huge concern.”

The new compact calls for the Menominee to pay the state 7.5 percent of its winnings from the new casino for 25 years. If the rival Ho-Chunk Nation and Forest County Potawatomi’s casino payments dip below USD 37.5 million in a fiscal year, the Menominee would cover the difference.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs is reviewing that deal between the state and the Menominee. FOX 11 asked Walker if the decision from the federal government is the last piece of information he needs.

“From what we’ve got from the federal government from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, I don’t think there’s anything more that they can or will do in the future that would make it any easier for us to protect the state’s taxpayers,” Walker said. “That’s really what it boils down to. It’s left to the remaining 11 tribal governments that are here. And again, to go forward to with this, we need to have some serious protections to make sure that the taxpayers aren’t on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars or more.”

Walker remained vague on whether he thinks those protections will come.

“We’ve been working on it for a year and a half pretty strong, but we’re in the last hours here,” Walker said.

Also Thursday, the Forest County Potawatomi filed a lawsuit challenging the federal government’s rejection of compact language that would have left the state on the hook for reimbursing the tribe if the rival Menominee Nation gets a casino in Kenosha.

Arbitrators in November came up with an amendment to the Potawatomi’s gambling compact with the state that formally established the state was responsible for reimbursing the tribe for Kenosha-related losses and laid out a process for calculating payments. The Bureau of Indian Affairs nixed the language earlier this month.

The Potawatomi filed suit in Washington, D.C. The tribe alleges that the Bureau of Indian Affairs exceeded its authority.

A BIA spokeswoman didn’t immediately return a message.

FOX 11 also reached out to both the Menominee and Potawatomi Tribes for comment on Governor Walker’s comments, and the lawsuit. However, neither have commented yet.

The governor’s deadline to make a decision on the casino is Feb. 19.