Frederica Freyberg:

But first, Governor Scott Walker has rejected the Menominee Tribe’s proposal for a casino in Kenosha. The Bureau of Indian Affairs approved the $800 million gaming complex in 2013 and the governor had authority over its approval. The Potawatomi tribe objected to the Kenosha complex, citing competition to its Milwaukee casino. In a statement, Governor Walker said, “Due to the compact negotiated by Governor Doyle, the current cost to the taxpayers of approving the proposed casino project is up to $100 million and the long-term economic hit to the state budget would be a potential loss of hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Meanwhile, the Potawatomi said it agreed the Kenosha casino was not in the best interest of Wisconsin. For its part, the Menominee tribe expressed great disappointment saying, “It is our belief that this project would have improved the lives of the nearly 9000 members of the Tribe. Instead, one Tribe the Forest County Potawatomi and one goal of Governor Walker, the presidency, has led to a no for our people.”

Given that Scott Walker, Speaker Robin Vos and others have blamed then governor, Jim Doyle, for gaming compacts that led to the Kenosha rejection, his Secretary of Administration issued this statement, “Governor Walker may have valid reasons to reject the Kenosha casino, but the Potawatomi compact signed nearly 10 years ago is certainly not one of them. Nothing in the compact would have resulted in the state losing money. This is particularly true given that Governor Walker signed a compact only a few days ago with the Menominee Tribe that eliminated the risk that the Kenosha casino would cost the state any money. In fact, it should be obvious to anyone that the state would receive more money from two casinos than one casino.”

State Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca’s home district includes the city of Kenosha. He joins us now from there. Thanks very much for doing so.

Peter Barca:

Good to be with you Frederica, under very difficult circumstances.

Freyberg:

What is your reaction to the governor’s decision to reject the casino in Kenosha?

Barca:

Just enormous disappointment. This is an economic mistake of colossal proportions. There are literally thousands of people that were pinning their hopes on the governor succeeding in these negotiations. The governor promised that he was aiming for a win-win, and this is clearly, just a complete failure of leadership he couldn’t get it done. And for him to blame previous governors when he has so much control at his disposal is all the more disappointing. This should have been done, it could have been done, it could have been a win-win and that’s what we were looking for here in the Kenosha-Racine area.

Freyberg:

What about the financial risk the administration continues to speak of?

Barca:

It’s absolutely ridiculous, First of all, everybody knows that two casinos are going to produce more economic revenue than one casino would. Secondly, just yesterday the Menominee and their partner, the Hard Rock, offered to put forward a bond to protect the taxpayers. But you know, I think the governor is failing at basic economics. I mean, the idea how much taxpayer revenue would be generated for up to 10,000 people working in this area in this state, and the amount of revenue that would come from millions of tourists that were projected to come up to this region from around Midwest, it’s just fool hardy to think that somehow this wouldn’t be a huge economic benefit for the area, and the taxpayers would be better off. He’s got to come up with better reasoning than that and I wish he would come to the Kenosha-Racine area to meet with leaders and talk to the citizens. I think he would find out just how deep their disappointment is in his failure of leadership.

Freyberg:

The Menominee lay the blame on Governor Walker’s decision on his “goal of the presidency.” Does this strike you as a political decision on his part?

Barca:

Well, it does. I mean look, these compacts he blames have been in place ever since he took the Oath of Office. There’s nothing new there. And, you know, I don’t know if he is distracted with thinking about his plans now that he has now to go to Iowa and New Hampshire, and elsewhere or if it was that letter he received last weekend from 600 Iowa conservatives saying that they wouldn’t support him if he moved forward on the Kenosha casino. But I know that he’s getting on a plane in the next 24 hours to fly to Iowa to speak to a lot of these conservatives, so I don’t know if he’s going to tell them he brought them a win for Iowa, but clearly it’s a huge loss especially for the Kenosha-Racine area but for all of Wisconsin. I just can’t begin to tell you the level of disappointment, not only that just the leaders feel, but as I go around the community today, that people are expressing. They’re just terribly disappointed in our Governor.

Freyberg:

We need to leave it there. Representative Peter Barca, Minority Leader. Thanks very much.

Barca:

Thank you, Frederica.