[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

“Supporting government funding of a stadium was not a nod to smaller government.”

I thought the stadium funding was to come from taxes on the players?

[SoConPubbie]

I thought the stadium funding was to come from taxes on the players?

Well, isn't a tax, even on a limited group of tax-payers, still a form of government funding of a stadium?

[DoodleDawg]

I thought the stadium funding was to come from taxes on the players?

Walker has committed $220 million in state support for the arena and has claimed that growth in revenue from Bucks players, employees, and visiting teams will pay for it. Well the Bucks have been in Milwaukee for some time now. The state has been collecting income taxes on players, employees, and visiting teams for some time now. What additional revenue is he expecting? Does he expect the Bucks to significantly raise the player salaries? Hire a large number of backoffice staff or hand out big raises to the ones they have? I would think that the revenue stream from those sources should be pretty stable. And since the state has been collecting them from years then applying it to a stadium in the future means the money comes from sonething else. Why is that "something else" less important than the new stadium for billionares is?

[grania]

Taxes on the players are income taxes. They should be used to lower taxes on other residents. Stadiums should be paid by private resources, possibly by stock sold to citizens.

It's just wrong to use extra income for the government to do things it doesn't need to do.