{"id":20186,"date":"2023-11-14T02:09:53","date_gmt":"2023-11-14T08:09:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=20186"},"modified":"2023-11-14T02:09:59","modified_gmt":"2023-11-14T08:09:59","slug":"wisconsin-state-senate-to-vote-on-downsized-milwaukee-brewers-stadium-repair-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=20186","title":{"rendered":"Wisconsin state Senate to vote on downsized Milwaukee Brewers stadium repair bill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MADISON, Wis. (AP) \u2014 The Wisconsin state Senate is poised to approve a plan to spend more than half a billion dollars of public funds<\/u><\/a> to help the Milwaukee Brewers repair their stadium over the next three decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Senate is expected to vote on the proposal during a floor session set to begin Tuesday morning. As of last week, Republican Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu was still trying to lock down enough votes to push the package. At least three GOP members, Julian Bradley, Steve Nass and Van Wanggaard, have said they oppose the bill and Sen. LaTonya Johnson has said she\u2019s the only Milwaukee Democrat who supports the package. But legislative leaders typically don\u2019t schedule bills for floor votes unless they\u2019re certain of passage, signaling LeMahieu has mustered up 17 votes between the two parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Approval would send the package to the Assembly. Speaker Robin Vos has signaled his support. Assembly passage would put the bill in front of Gov. Tony Evers, who can sign it into law or veto it. Evers\u2019 spokesperson, Britt Cudaback, said Monday that the governor supports the Senate version of the package.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Brewers say the 22-year-old American Family Field needs extensive repairs. The stadium\u2019s glass outfield doors, seats and concourses need replacing, the stadium\u2019s luxury suites and video scoreboard need upgrades and the stadium\u2019s signature retractable roof, fire suppression systems, parking lots, elevators and escalators need work, according to the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Brewer officials initially said the team might leave Milwaukee if they didn\u2019t get public dollars to help with the repairs. Rick Schlesinger, the Brewers\u2019 president of business operations, softened the team\u2019s stance last month, saying the Brewers want to remain in the city \u201cfor the next generation\u201d but the prospect of the team leaving still looms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Debates over handing billions of public dollars to professional sports teams<\/u><\/a> are always divisive. The Brewers\u2019 principal owner, Mark Attanasio, is worth an estimated $700 million, according to Yahoo Finance. The team is valued at around $1.6 billion, according to Forbes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legislative leaders have been working since September on a plan to help the team cover the repairs, motivated by fear of losing tens of millions in tax revenue if the Brewers leave Milwaukee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Assembly last month approved a plan<\/u><\/a> that calls for the state to contribute $411.5 million and the city of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County to contribute a combined $135 million. The state and the locals would make the payments in annual installments through 2050. The Brewers would contribute $100 million and extend their lease at the stadium through 2050, guaranteeing Major League Baseball would remain in its smallest market for another 27 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senate Republicans balked at the size of the state contribution. They amended the package last week to scale back the state contribution to $382.5 million. They also added a surcharge on tickets to non-baseball events that would generate an estimated $14.1 million by 2050. The city and county\u2019s contributions would remain unchanged but the team\u2019s contribution would increase to $110 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Brewers support the revised version of the package, and Vos said last week that he hopes the Senate changes will push the plan \u201cover the finish line.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MADISON, Wis. (AP) \u2014 The Wisconsin state Senate is poised to approve a plan to spend more than half a billion dollars of public funds to help the Milwaukee Brewers repair their stadium over the next three decades. The Senate is expected to vote on the proposal during a floor session set to begin Tuesday morning. As […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":20187,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5782],"tags":[24180,24182,2066,3306,24181,3174,2070],"class_list":["post-20186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ep","tag-brewers","tag-repair-bill","tag-senate","tag-sports","tag-stadium","tag-vote","tag-wisconsin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20186"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20188,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20186\/revisions\/20188"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}