Walker's plan calls for:
1. The State of Wisconsin to issue a $220 million revenue bond.
2. The bond to require full and immediate repayment by the Bucks if they are sold before the retirement of the debt.
3. The establishment a Jock Tax "base" of the current tax revenue from NBA players at $6.5 million.
4. The state of Wisconsin to divert all "surplus" NBA Jock Tax monies in excess of $6.5 million annually to help retire the $220 million revenue bond.
5. The Jock Tax surplus diversion will continue until bond debt is retired.
I will acknowledge that Walker's plan is innovative. It also creates the illusion (but not the reality) that the NBA players are paying for the new arena.
But I'm still opposed to any state funding for a new downtown Milwaukee arena.
I don't like creating a false "surplus" (maybe if the $6.5 million base were indexed for inflation, I would have less of an issue).
I don't like subsidizing billionaires.
A new arena is not needed and will turn the Bradley Center into another unused arena facility.
A new arena will not result in any new economic development other than construction.
It will create economic losers among the local bar and restaurant owners currently near the Bradley Center.
It will make the Bucks and their affiliated bar & restaurant owners in the new arena economic winners.
Government should not be picking economic winners and losers.
Look at how this “new stadium” maneuver has worked out for Jed York in Santa Clara.
They’ve already lost a third of their season ticket holders, and people despise the Levi stadium intensely.
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