MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Gov. Scott Walker was set to announce terms of a deal to pay for a new $500 million arena to keep the Milwaukee Bucks in Wisconsin, with half the financing coming from taxpayers and the rest coming from current and former team owners, two people familiar with the deal told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Walker, a likely presidential candidate, has been arguing for months that it will cost the state more in lost income tax revenue if the NBA pulls the Bucks from Milwaukee than it will to pay for a new downtown arena. He has scheduled an announcement at the state Capitol for Thursday afternoon on the plan, the exact terms of which have yet to be made public.
Walker, team officials, state lawmakers and the Democratic Milwaukee mayor and county executive have been negotiating behind closed doors for weeks.
The plan will include $250 million already committed by the Bucks’ current and former owners, according to a person familiar with funding talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity because no one was authorized to discuss the details before the governor’s announcement.
The other $250 million will come from taxpayers, said a second person who also has been briefed on details of the plan but was not authorized to discuss it publicly before Walker’s announcement. The taxpayer contribution will be capped at $250 million, the source told the AP.
“This is a much better deal than most other projects like it around the country,” said state Sen. Alberta Darling, the co-chair of the Legislature’s budget-writing committee.
Walker took to Twitter on Thursday to once again defend the deal. “Doing nothing on an arena will cost the state $419 million over the next 20 years,” Walker tweeted.
Republicans who control the Legislature have publicly voiced their displeasure with portions of the plan, raising questions about whether there are enough votes to approve it. And conservatives — including Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group founded by billionaires Charles and David Koch — has said the deal is a bad one for taxpayers.
The Journal Sentinel reported Wednesday that a majority of Republican state senators don’t want the arena financing plan to come under the two-year $70 billion state budget. An alternative route to passing it could be introducing the plan as a separate bill, where Democrats would join with Republicans to get enough votes in support.
Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Wednesday that the process of passing the plan didn’t matter as much as doing what’s best for the state. Myranda Tanck, spokeswoman for Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, said Thursday the Bucks deal is planned to be in the budget, though introducing it as a separate bill has not been ruled out.
Without a new stadium for the Bucks by 2017, the NBA has said it will buy back the team and relocate it. The team currently plays in the 27-year-old BMO Harris Bradley Center.
Current owners Marc Lasry and Wesley Edens bought the team in April 2014 from former U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl for $550 million. At the time, Lasry and Edens pledged to contribute $100 million toward arena funding, but have since increased that total to $150 million. Kohl also has pledged $100 million for the new arena.
The tentative agreement, which was first reported last month by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, includes $55 million in bonds from the state and would allow the Wisconsin Center District to issue $93 million in bonds. Allowing the center to issue those bonds would require the Legislature and Walker to change state law to extend the district’s repayment period.
The district levies three taxes in Milwaukee County: 3 percent on car rentals, 2.5 percent on hotel rooms and a half-percent on restaurant food and beverage sales. Current law allows the district to increase the rental car tax to 4 percent and the hotel tax to 3 percent. If that is done, Walker has argued, it wouldn’t be a new tax.
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AP Sports Writer Genaro C. Armas in Milwaukee contributed to this report.
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