{"id":6987,"date":"2023-11-10T05:03:04","date_gmt":"2023-11-10T06:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=6987"},"modified":"2023-11-10T06:03:38","modified_gmt":"2023-11-10T06:03:38","slug":"brewers-ballpark-tweaks-not-enough-to-sway-some-republican-state-senators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=6987","title":{"rendered":"Brewers\u2019 Ballpark Tweaks Not Enough to Sway Some Republican State Senators"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/brewers-ballpark-tweaks-not-enough-to-sway-some-republican-state-senators\/tcsquare\/2023\/11\/10\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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by Benjamin Yount<\/h5>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The plan to spend taxpayer dollars on the Milwaukee Brewers\u2019 ballpark may still be short of votes at the Wisconsin Capitol.<\/p>\n

A number of Republican senators on Wednesday criticized the latest version of the plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the amendment makes some improvements to the bill, it does not meet the expectations of my constituents. The Brewers\u2019 contribution falls short of their equity stake, and the burden on taxpayers is too high for me to support it,\u201d Sen Julian Bradley, R-Franklin, said after a hearing on the proposal.<\/p>\n

The improvement Bradley (pictured above, right) noted includes a new $2 non-Brewer game ticket tax that is expected to raise up to $500,000 a year and lower Wisconsin\u2019s contributions to $377 million over the life of the deal. Originally, the state was expected to kick in $411 million.<\/p>\n

The Brewers would also pay an extra $10 million in rent over the 27-years that a new lease would run.<\/p>\n

Bradley continues to say that\u2019s not enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s clear that my constituents would welcome a deal but only if each side contributes their fair share,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, continues to be the biggest Republican critic of the proposed American Family Field funding plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Brewers\u2019 stadium action today in a Senate committee provides the clearest proof yet that the uniparty system that has corrupted Washington D.C. is now decaying the halls of the Wisconsin Capitol,\u201d Nass (pictured above, left) said in a statement. \u201cToday\u2019s Senate committee action does nothing to benefit taxpayers and is purely political theatrics to make it appear this bad deal has been improved.\u201d<\/p>\n

The State Assembly approved the Brewer ballpark package back in October, and Gov. Tony Evers has said he and leaders in Milwaukee are on board.<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, however, has said he does not have the 17 votes needed to pass the ballpark package as is.<\/p>\n

Evers has said he\u2019s convinced a few Democratic senators to vote yes, but he\u2019s not said just how many.<\/p>\n

The state, through the Southeast Wisconsin Professional Baseball Park District, owns American Family Field. The ballpark opened in 2001, and both the Brewers and Major League Baseball say it needs updates and refurbishments. The Brewers\u2019 current lease runs through 2030. The new deal would keep the team in Milwaukee through 2050.<\/p>\n

Even with the uncertainty over the ballpark funding plan\u2019s future, LeMahieu has said he\u2019d like to see the plan come up for a vote in the Senate next week.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u2013 \u2013<\/p>\n

Benjamin Yount is a contributor to The Center Square.\u00a0<\/a>
\nBackground Photo \u201cAmerican Family Field\u201d by Mrschimpf<\/a>. CC BY-SA 4.0.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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The post Brewers\u2019 Ballpark Tweaks Not Enough to Sway Some Republican State Senators<\/a> appeared first on The Wisconsin Daily Star<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/brewers-ballpark-tweaks-not-enough-to-sway-some-republican-state-senators\/tcsquare\/2023\/11\/10\/ by Benjamin Yount \u00a0 The plan to spend taxpayer…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":3495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-daily-star"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6987"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6988,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6987\/revisions\/6988"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}