The Milwaukee Post

September 5, 2014 • Milwaukee County Post • 9 Most tax cheats go to great lengths to conceal their behavior. They get paid in cash, create dummy accounts, invent hid- den expenses and go through other machi- nations to keep the government from know- ing how much they really owe. Not the Potawatomi tribe. It announces in advance that it isn't going to pay its taxes. The tribe, from now on known as the Deadbeat Potawatomi, says it will not make its annual $25 million payment to the state of Wisconsin because the tribe will be owed money if the proposed Menominee tribal casino opens in Kenosha. Indeed, the sweet- heart compact deal the Deadbeat Potawatomi cut with former Gov. Jim Doyle says if any new casino is opened in south- east Wisconsin, the Deadbeat Potawatomi compact is unenforceable. But the Kenosha casino hasn't opened and hasn't even been approved. Where do the Deadbeat Potawatomi get off ? The answer lies in the sheer arrogance of this tribe. Deadbeat Potawatomi leaders whine that a casino in Kenosha would hurt the Milwaukee operation. They say such competition is unfair. But at the same time, they open a massive new hotel that will hurt existing Milwaukee hotel operators. That competition, according to the Deadbeat Potawatomi, is fine. It is only unfair when someone competes with the Deadbeat Potawatomi that the tribe wails about fairness. Likewise, many Milwaukee- area bars, restaurants and sports business- es have been badly hurt by the existence of the Deadbeat Potawatomi casino. The existing compact calls for the tribe to pay 6.5 percent of its profits or "net win." The tribe doesn't pay income, sales or prop- erty taxes so the 6.5 is already an amazing deal. But running the numbers shows exactly how lucrative the Deadbeat Potawatomi casino actually is. The $25 mil- lion is roughly 6.5 percent of the Milwaukee casino profits. That means the tribe is taking in a staggering $368 million at one casino! There isn't a single stand- alone facility of any business in Wisconsin that produces that type of profit. Even if the Kenosha casino cuts into Milwaukee numbers, the Deadbeat Potawatomi will still be rolling in a staggering amount of dough. But what's really revealing about the ugly nature of this little tribe from Forest County is its greed. The total state cut from all of the tribal casinos is $52 million. That means the Deadbeat Potawatomi is taking 48 percent of all of the profits from Indian gaming in Wisconsin. The Deadbeat tribe has about 1,400 enrolled members. The total state population of enrolled Native Americans is 54,000. That means 2 percent of the state Indian population is taking in 48 percent of the casino profits. The Deadbeat Potawatomi refuse to share any of this with other tribes. Instead, it fights to stop poorer tribes from getting any piece of the massive gambling pie. Milwaukee tribal officials say any other tribe could have gotten into Milwaukee. True enough. But the same argument can be made about the golden site in Kenosha that the Menominiee tribe is trying to develop. The Milwaukee daily newspaper, once again opposing regional economic develop- ment in favor of a Milwaukee business, says the casino market is tapped out and there's no room for growth. So what? Why is one tribe, a tax-dodging deadbeat one at that, entitled to the status quo? Nobody is going broke here. Let's imagine that Kenosha casino cuts into 40 percent of the Milwaukee gambling business. That still lives the Deadbeat Potawatomi with more than $280 million in profits. That's $200,000 per tribal member! Seems like enough to pay your taxes. ( Mark Belling is the host of a daily WISN radio talk show. His column appears weekly in the Milwaukee Post.) MARK BELLING STANDING UP for MILWAUKEE OPINION For Potawatomi, competition is a one-way street By OWEN ROBINSON Much has been said about President Barack Obama spending his time golfing while the world burns. While the imagery may have been exaggerated, the reality is close to the mark. At the very least, as Obama was on Martha's Vineyard enjoy- ing the links, Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion troops marched into Ukraine. This step by Russia has been coming for a while and is a direct result of America's failed foreign policy under Obama. It has long been known that Putin, the ex-KGB agent and Communist strong man, has a passion to retur n Russia to its former glory as a world power. In order to advance that goal, Putin staged the invasion and assimilation of Crimea earlier this year. The formula was simple and has been used by tyrants from Mao to Hitler. First, Russia funded and fomented Russian sympathizers in Ukraine to rebel. Second, those sympa- thizers asked Russia for help to protect them. Third, Russia took over. The same thing is playing out for the rest of Ukraine as I write this. Russia instigated and funded a rebellion against the Ukrainian government. Then Russia sent in soldiers and supplies to protect the rebels under the pretense that they are ethnic Russians being persecuted by the Ukrainian government. The next step is obvious. Russia intends to annex all of Ukraine. Meanwhile, Obama has watched this unfold and done noth- ing. Even when the rebels with Russian missiles shot a civilian airliner out of the sky, Obama did nothing. Now that the Russian invasion is advancing further, Obama held a news conference and promised to perhaps gradually levy some more sanctions on Russia, if the Europeans agree. Putin is acting with impunity precisely because he knows that Obama will not do anything. Lest one thinks that Ukraine is none of America's business, it most certainly is. Ukraine is rich with agricultural, manu- facturing and natural resources that will vastly strengthen Russia's position in the world and allow it to dominate European and world affairs. Furthermore, we must not forget that the United States promised to protect Ukraine's sovereign borders. In 1994 after the breakup of the Soviet Union, President Bill Clinton signed the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances committing the United States to protect Ukraine in exchange for Ukraine giving up its nuclear weapons. By breaking that promise, Obama is signaling to our nation's allies that we will not honor our commitments. The ramifications will be long-reaching. Why would any nation promise to give up any weapons based on Obama's prom- ises? Iran? Syria? North Korea? And even longtime allies like Japan are rumbling about abandoning their decades-long dis- ar mament because the promise of American security is no longer unassail- able. Obama's abandonment of Ukraine to the Russian horde will lead to a more dangerous world. Just across the Black Sea in the Middle East, another Obama foreign policy deba- cle is coming to the fore. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has taken control of large swaths of Syria and Iraq with barbaric consequences for all who opposed them. Once again, Obama's unwillingness to act led to the crisis the world now faces. When Syrians launched their civil war against the dictator Bashar al-Assad, Obama stood by and refused to support them. After Obama famously drew his red line saying that America would retal- iate if Assad used chemical weapons, Assad promptly used them and Obama's red line was proven to mean nothing. When the rebels were infiltrated and taken over by Islamist terrorist organiza- tions, Obama still did nothing. Meanwhile, in Iraq, Obama rushed to remove American soldiers for domestic political reasons, leaving a vacuum of power and a weak Iraqi government in their wake. The result is that vacuum is being filled by ISIL. Over two weeks after Obama stopped on his way to a golf game to express sympathy for the vicious beheading of an American jour nalist, James Foley, by ISIL, Obama again took to the microphone to address the issue. He declared that we don't have a strategy yet on ISIL and did not give any time frame for when we would have one. Meanwhile, he is spending American treasure and risking American lives on air strikes that he has admitted do not support any broader strategy other than, perhaps, allowing Obama to cast the illu- sion that he is doing something. But why does America not have a strat- egy for ISIL yet? We have known about their growth and advances for years. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said more than a week ago, they're beyond just a ter- rorist group. They marry ideology, sophistication of strategic and tactical military prowess, they are tremendously well-funded. This is beyond anything that we've seen. So we must prepare for every- thing. Why haven't we? With all of the resources of the federal government who has known about ISIL for years, why is there not a strategy? It is a dereliction of duty on a presidential scale that America does not have a plan to deal with ISIL even as their followers are tweeting threats from America's streets. History remembers Nero as playing his lyre as Rome burned. History will remember Obama for his handicap. (Owen Robinson is a West Bend resi- dent. His column runs regularly in The Post.) America recedes on the world stage Robinson

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