My family has run a plumbing company in southeast Wisconsin for 31 years, and to be honest, I’d be pretty happy if we were the only plumbers in town. But – pardon the industry pun – I know that’s just a pipe dream.
The reality is that there are a lot of plumbers around here.
Competition is a fact of life in a free-market society like ours. My dad taught me that good businesses don’t run away from competition, they face it head-on. They grow with it, make changes and adjustments because of it and become stronger as a result.
Obviously, the leaders of the Forest County Potawatomi Community have never talked with my dad.
Potawatomi’s off-reservation Milwaukee casino has operated without competition for nearly 20 years, enjoying a gaming monopoly that has made the Potawatomi one of the country’s richest tribes. Now, tribal leaders are using that wealth to fund a multimillion-dollar campaign designed to lock in that monopoly and restrain free trade by trying to kill the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin’s proposed Kenosha casino and the competition it would bring.
If they’re successful, the Potawatomi will kill more than just competition – they’ll kill economic opportunity for our region and state. They’ll kill the opportunity for 3,000 good-paying jobs guaranteed for Southeast Wisconsin residents, hundreds of millions of dollars for local schools and government, and billions of dollars in payments to the State of Wisconsin. The Potawatomi like to brag that they pay more to the State than any other tribe or business. The Menominee would pay even more than Potawatomi – provided their casino gets built.
The latest weapon in Potawatomi’s anti-competition arsenal is a series of expensive and annoying television and radio ads complaining that a small portion of Kenosha casino money will go to the Connecticut tribe helping the impoverished Menominee get the project off the ground.
You heard that right – the Potawatomi want people to be mad because an out-of-state entity is making a significant investment to grow business and create jobs in southeastern Wisconsin. The next thing you know, the Potawatomi will be protesting DaimlerChrysler’s $450 million retooling of its Kenosha engine plant. They’ll stage sit-ins at the site of Illinois-based Abbott Labs’ proposed new Kenosha corporate campus. Maybe they’ll walk picket lines in Miller Valley to protest Miller Brewing Company’s foreign ownership. The Potawatomi argument is seriously flawed and absurd.
Potawatomi’s campaign against competition is bad for business, and it’s bad for southeastern Wisconsin. It’s also completely unnecessary. Multiple economic analyses, including one commissioned by the Potawatomi themselves, have shown there is plenty of room in southeastern Wisconsin for two competing casinos to succeed, be extremely profitable, create jobs and support their communities. The studies show that even with competition from Kenosha, the expanded Milwaukee casino will make hundreds of millions of dollars more a year. It’s clear that casino competition can – and should – flourish in our region.
I’m proud to be a supporter of the Kenosha entertainment center and casino, and to have joined with so many of my fellow citizens in soundly endorsing the project in two public referendums. I’m also proud to be a successful – and competitive – local business person. As one business owner to another, I urge the Forest County Potawatomi to look beyond their own world. Do what’s right as a business and a Southeast Wisconsin community partner. Allow competition to thrive and bring new jobs and economic opportunity that will benefit everyone.
Bob Lee Jr. is president of Lee Plumbing Mechanical Contractors, Inc., in Kenosha. For more information, visit www.CasinoCompetitionForWisconsin.com.
