Wisconsin Giving $250M To Billionaire-Owned Basketball Arena Days After Cutting $250M In Education

[HereSince1628]

17. Couldn't happen without Democratic support...

Dems in Milwaukee wanted this, but Dems in the state senate held back because the proposal called for money to be raised by harsh fines and property forfeitures...but they gave in substituting a 4 million dollar per year reduction in aid from the state to Milwaukee County for the next 20 years...



"Republicans who supported the bill had to turn to minority Democrats for help getting to 17 votes.

Democratic senators met for most of the day Tuesday and most of Wednesday afternoon ironing out what they wanted in the bill. They finally emerged from their meetings late Wednesday afternoon with a number of changes.

One of them calls for a $2 ticket surcharge, with $1.50 going to the arena's governing district and 50 cents going to the state. The surcharge would increase state revenues by $500,000 and the district's revenues by $1.5 million, according to a Legislative Fiscal Bureau analysis.

The original bill called for the state to make an $8 million annual contribution to the project with tax dollars. The state would have offset $4 million of that contribution by taking over collecting past-due debt on Milwaukee County-issued fines, forfeitures and property taxes and pumping the first $4 million of that revenue back into the general fund, with the balance going back to the county.

Democrats balked at that plan, saying it would burden poor people struggling to pay their debt. They erased the provision but allowed language calling for slashing state aid to Milwaukee County by $4 million each year until 2035."