Artist’s rendering of the Kenosha casino project.
A bipartisan group of southeastern Wisconsin lawmakers is asking Governor Scott Walker to take another look at his decision to reject a proposed Kenosha casino.
Walker rejected the Menominee Tribe’s project last Friday, citing concerns about potential litigation and back-payments the state may owe the Forest County Potawatomi. However, State Senator Van Wanggaard (R-Racine) believes the Menominee did all they could to protect the state from those issues, and argues that was not taken into account in the report the governor based his decision on. “It would seem to me that they’ve addressed that with their willingness to indemnify the state against that through bonding and whatever means are necessary,” Wanggaard argues.
The Racine Republican and nine other southeastern Wisconsin lawmakers, including Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) sent a letter to Governor Walker this week, asking him to take another look at the proposal. Wanggaard says “we’re just asking him to take one more look at it…if his decision is no, then it’s no. We have to live with that and people will just have to get past that.”
Wanggaard says his office has been inundated with calls and emails since the decision came down, almost a month before the February 19th deadline set by federal officials. He says his constituents are upset about the loss of jobs and revenue the casino could have brought to the region.