MILWAUKEE — The Brewers stadium funding deal is now official. Governor Tony Evers signed into law the massive public/private package on Tuesday to keep the team in Milwaukee until 2050.
Just like Milwaukee County, the city of Milwaukee owes $67.5 million over the next 27 years for repairs at American Family Field. That money is coming from the new 2 percent sales tax that kicks in at the beginning of the year. However, the mayor said it isn't taking away from any of the revenue it originally expected.
Buying things like prepared food and clothing in Milwaukee will be more expensive next month as the city implements a brand new two percent sales tax.
It’s expected to bring the city nearly $200 million in 2024 to pay for things like its growing pension obligations while making investments in critical services like police and first responders. But what you may not know is some of it is also funding ballpark improvements.
"There was going to be a local contribution as part of any Brewers deal and Milwaukee was going to be a part of that,” said Mayor Cavalier Johnson.
While it may sound confusing, Mayor Johnson says the city’s contributions to American Family Field repairs won’t have an impact on taxpayers thanks in part to state Representative Rob Brooks who helped discover a flaw in a state administrative fee.
"Obviously there's been an 8-month process and we have tried to uncover every aspect of new revenue, cost savings, everything we can, and this is just something that came up literally at the 11th hour that really saved the day,” Brooks said.
Rep. Brooks says local sales taxes in Wisconsin come with a user fee from Wisconsin’s Department of Revenue. It pays for the staff that processes the local sales tax. Rep. Brooks and others learned the administrative fee of 1.75 percent is far more than the Dept. of Revenue needs and the leftover cash goes straight to the state’s general fund.
"So we reached out to everybody and we're like, of course, we'd love to cut that and of course, it would meet our goals and help Milwaukee out on top of the sales tax revenue that they generate,” he said.
State lawmakers determined the user fee only needs to be .75 percent. That means an extra 1 percent goes back to the communities where the money came from.
In Milwaukee’s case, it’s more than enough to pay for its share of ballpark improvements, meaning the money for those improvements will come from what would have been the state’s administrative fee.
"I think it's important for us to make a contribution and it to not have an impact on taxpayers,” Mayor Johnson said. “It's important to have Major League Baseball, to have major league spots. We're a major league city, we should have these amenities."
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