Dear Governor Walker:
As organizations representing the business and minority communities in the metro Milwaukee region, we are writing regarding your review of a possible new casino in Kenosha County. While we are aware that your deliberations on this matter will have to take into account many factors, we hope you will pay particular attention to the potential net job impacts this project would have on the region.
As you know, there have already been competing claims about a new proposed casino’s jobs impacts; with the positive job creation numbers touted by casino proponents counterbalanced by a City and County of Milwaukee study in April of 2012, suggesting a net loss of 3,000 direct and indirect jobs in Milwaukee. Further, the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute issued a study last September projecting a job shift, but no net job gain for the region.
You have made job creation an important priority for Wisconsin. That commitment to job creation is particularly appreciated here in metro Milwaukee with our high levels of unemployment and the state’s largest minority population. As you consider the proposal for a Kenosha casino, we encourage you to carefully vet the overall jobs impacts of any such project to ensure that it grows our employment and regional prosperity and does not merely shift jobs internally from one community in the M7 region to another.
Thank you for your consideration of these concerns.
Sincerely,
Timothy Sheehy, president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce
Maria Monreal Cameron, president and CEO of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin
Ralph Hollman, president and CEO of the Milwaukee Urban League
