(Beaver Dam) Legislative Republicans have unveiled a $614-million-dollar plan to keep the Brewers in Milwaukee and upgrade American Family Field. The new plan would raise income taxes on MLB players and staff, including the Brewers.
“Unfortunately, the amount of money that was generated and has been spent so far, doesn’t even allow the team to remain in Wisconsin unless something is done as quickly as possible,” says Assembly Speaker Robin Vos.
The stadium is owned by the state and the Brewers organization is a tenant with lease that expires in 2030. The proposed plan would extend that lease until 2050. Representative Mark Born says in addition to collecting income taxes from the Brewers as well as visiting players, money from two other sources will be utilized to keep the stadium in good working condition.
“The next revenue source will be local government money from the city and county of Milwaukee…they get some benefits like county sales tax, room taxes…things like that,” says Born. “Then the third is the team. The Brewers recognize that the way they make money in this market is with getting folks in the stands…watching the games. So, they’re also going to put in a chunk of money in on top of the lease payments that they already make.”
The $614-million-dollar plan is broken down into about $400-million from the state, $100-million-dollars in new money from the Brewers, and roughly $200-million coming from local governments. Born says it makes fiscal sense to keep the Brewers in Milwaukee.
“The math has to make sense and in this case it does,” says Born. “Upfront here…because we’re a little bit behind…we’re going to use the majority of that revenue stream…on the income tax side…to pay. But as that phases down over time, we’ll be continuing to collect more and that’s a revenue stream for the state that pays for schools and roads and all the things that go into the general fund.”
The Beaver Dam Republican adds that if the team leaves it would have impacts on sales tax revenue and hotel stays.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the governor said it’s unfortunate Republicans rejected a proposal Tony Evers’ made earlier this year to spend $290-million in state money to fund Brewers ballpark renovations. They say Evers looks forward to reviewing the Republican proposal and continuing conversations.
–WRN contributed
