Bruce Murphy
Back in the News

Potawatomi Plays Hardball

Gov. Walker delayed decision on Kenosha casino, so tribe is delaying $25 million payment owed to state.

By - Aug 27th, 2014 11:14 am

Gov. Walker delayed decision on Kenosha casino, so tribe is delaying $25 million payment owed to state. Back to the full article.

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8 thoughts on “Back in the News: Potawatomi Plays Hardball”

  1. Jake formerly if the LP says:

    Of course Walker held up his decision in order to shake down both sides for campaign donations! And now that Potawatomi called his bluff, he’s trying to misdirect his blunder onto Doyle.

    The other amazing part is that Walker is claiming $25 million is going to throw a $30 BILLION General Fund budget into chaos. Makes you wonder just how much of a deficit those stupid tax cuts caused, doesn’t it? Those of you in Milwaukee know this routine well.

  2. David Ciepluch says:

    This is what happens when government is in bed with the gambling industry. In Las Vegas they have even cleansed the “gambling” name to call it the gaming industry. This is somehow supposed to sanitize a life sucking business.

    I am not opposed to gambling for entertainment and people that can afford and control their desires, but there are far too many losers that choose to spend their money on gambling instead of family needs. This lowers the quality of life opportunity for many children. Gambling does not create any new jobs. It is just a parasite on the larger community that serves as a host.

    I had the once in a lifetime opportunity to have dinner with retired Senator Gaylord Nelson at Potawatomi near the end of his life. I asked him what he thought of the complex. He looked at me sternly and as I recall said “Government is nothing but a bunch of whores for getting involved in gambling.”.

    I do give credit to the Potatwatomi and First Nation People for taking what was considered one of the worst pieces of real estate, in likely the worst location in Wisconsin at the time, and taking it from a mere bingo hall to the cash cow it is today. The irony and humor that this was their rich land over 165 years ago with a wealth of life giving fishing and rice harvests. Today it provides them a different sort of wealth and actual political power they lacked at that time. As they buy their land back one piece at a time.

  3. Chris Byhre says:

    Jake, there is no deflection onto Doyle by Walker in this case. As I am certain you recall, Doyle gave the tribes gaming compacts in perpetuity in WI in return for very generous donations to his campaign. He did so without input from the Legislature (is that what Democracy looks like?) He also was trying to close a $3.2 billion dollar deficit that his reckless spending helped create. You are also probably aware that WI Tribes donated over 45K to his innagural bash in 2003 to grease the skids for compact negotiations and donated over 1 million dollars to Dems in WI in that election cycle. Stupid tax cuts? Walker saved WI taxpayers over 3 Billion dollars Jake. Hardly stupid.

  4. Nicholas says:

    Doyle caused the McCallum deficit?

    Was Doyle’s “reckless” spending held in check by the GOP? After all they held both chambers until his 2nd term.

  5. Chris Byhre says:

    McCallum was Gov for 2 years. We suffered through 8 years of Doyle. I also said that he helped create the deficit, I did not state it was his entirely. Doyle illegally raided the WI Injured Patients fund to the tune of over $200 million dollars that was ordered to be repaid by the Supreme Court. He removed over 1 billion dollars from the state’s transportation fund. Doyle left WI with a greater structural deficit then when he came into office and this includes the 2 billion dollars WI received as a part of the failed Federal Stimulus program. Doyle negotiated the gaming compacts that Walker and every Governor after him have to deal with. His legacy endures and we all suffer for it.

  6. Jake formerly of the LP says:

    For Chrissy Lyhre-

    As Nicholas brings up, the deficit Doyle was trying to close in 2003 was inherited from Tommy’s and McCallum’s recklessness. And he did close the deficit despite no help at all from the GOP Baggers in the Legislature. Don’t even try that one.

    As for your Act 10 talking points- don’t try that garbage either. For the $3 billion in alleged savings, there was at least $2 billion in cuts to school districts and local governments (which have not been restored), and at least $2 billion in lower consumption pulled out of the Wisconsin economy’s level of consumption in 2012 alone (including a lot that would have gone to your beloved “private sector job creators”). Scotty tried to play the same sketchy game Doyle didn’t with the Potawatomi (except with more donations and even more scumminess), and it was the same pay-to-play ethic that Scotty has put to unprecedented levels in this state. But Potawatomi beat him at their own game.

    And now we know why Scotty was claiming that the state needed the tribe’s $25 million so badly. Because Walker’s stupid tax cuts have led to a shortfall of more than $280 million, and now means budget deficits of $471 million next year, and $1.3 billion in the next budget. That doesn’t even count the $25 million in missed Potawatomi payments.

    http://jakehasablog.blogspot.com/2014/08/verified-massive-budget-deficit-in.html

    In fact, it is now very likely that the structural deficit is even worse than what Scotty walker into in 2011, and that’s despite 4 years of the Obama Recovery that’s led to surpluses in most other states. It’s quite an “achievement”.

    Your boy’s a corrupt failure, and this casino issue is just one of many examples. It’s only paid hacks or weak-minded suburb trash are still beLIEving that Walkerism has left us any better off in any way. I’m just trying to figure out which one you are.

  7. Chris Byhre says:

    I suspect you are trying to figure out a lot of things based on your childish rant. In previous posts you had set the bar pretty low for intellect, but you somehow managed to crawl underneath it today.

  8. Jake formerly of the LP says:

    In other words, Chrissy has nothing, since he won’t answer the FACTS I gave,

    You know, just like how I and a few others got the truth out about Wisconsin being dead last in income growth since Walker took office (another direct effect of Act 10). Something else Chrissy and his band of right-wing Lyhres wanted to deceive about by cherry-picking numbers.

    http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2014/aug/28/blog-posting/bloggers-say-wisconsin-ranks-last-income-growth-/

    Maybe you should stay quiet in the bubble instead of shooting your mouth off.

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