Both major-party candidates for Wisconsin governor have said they oppose the Menominee Tribe's proposed off-reservation casino in Kenosha. Republican Tom Tiffany has said he does not want gaming expanded in Wisconsin, and Democrat David Crowley has raised concerns that the project would pull revenue away from the existing Potawatomi Casino & Hotel in Milwaukee.
That opposition matters because federal law requires the governor's approval for an off-reservation casino of this kind. With both candidates on record against it, the group Citizens Against Expanded Gambling argues the project has no realistic path under the next administration.
Lorri Pickens, the group's executive director, said local officials have spent years tying up land, negotiating agreements and devoting public resources to the proposal. She urged officials to let the land option expire, pull Kenosha County out of the intergovernmental agreement and put the community's time and resources toward other economic development.
The group has also pointed to what it calls unresolved problems with the proposal, including economic studies it says are outdated because they do not account for the now-open Ho-Chunk casino in Beloit or the Hard Rock Casino in Rockford, an environmental analysis it calls incomplete, and late changes to the project site.
The Village of Bristol is meanwhile passing up a proposed $15 million sale of its nearly 60-acre site, which could return the land to taxable, productive use. County analyses estimated the site could bring in nearly $620,000 a year in property taxes if developed as a hotel, or nearly $820,000 a year if developed commercially.
Under the current option and intergovernmental agreements, the group notes, there are no substitute payments if the next governor withholds the required approval, leaving the land tied up while that tax revenue goes uncollected.
