Brewers may not get stadium tax money until state can funnel it through county first

Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio’s plan to get $360 million in state money via either a giant novelty check or years of sales and income tax kickbacks is “in limbo,” reports Wisconsin Public Radio. More in limbo than the governor and the state assembly speaker yelling at each other over which exact pile of public cash to light on fire? Let’s investigate:

On Monday, a Milwaukee County Board committee passed a resolution opposing using any county tax dollars to fund long-term renovations at the stadium.

Big news! Wait, what does the Milwaukee County Board have to do with this? Wasn’t it the state that was talking about spending money on renovations to the Brewers’ 22-year-old stadium?

Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, has said he wants local money to be used in any such deal.

Well, that’s different. Last we left off, Vos was saying he would kick back $11 million a year in sales taxes from the stadium and $12 million in player income taxes. But shortly thereafter, Vos said while the state would have “some kind of a participatory role,” “the idea of saying that the state is going to bear all of the responsibility for a local project is probably not realistic.” That’s as specific as he’s gotten, it appears, but it was enough for a committee of the Milwaukee County Board to stand up and say, uh, yeah, not us, thanks. Or verbatim: “[Milwaukee County Board member Steve] Taylor said using local funds for a stadium deal would take ‘precious resources’ away from the county.”

Taylor said at Monday’s committee meeting:

“We just were debating the fact that we don’t have enough shared revenue, we need a sales tax, and at the same time that these conversations are taking place, we’re basically being told … you’re going to be paying for this.”

“Shared revenue” has to do with how much money the state sends to local governments, and Vos hinted at this being part of Brewers subsidy negotiations, maybe:

“We’re negotiating on shared revenue first, so we haven’t really gotten to the point of getting into all the details of a Brewers deal or what it potentially would look like,” Vos said. “I think for many of my colleagues who don’t live in the southeastern Wisconsin region, the idea of writing a check out to any professional sports team in Wisconsin, is probably a nonstarter.”

With the important caveat that I am not a Wisconsin statehouse reporter, I’m going to tea-leaf-read this as: Vos (Republican) doesn’t want to agree to send state money to the city of Milwaukee or Milwaukee County (both Democratic) unless the local governments agree to spend some of it on the Brewers, because that way he gets to play the hero by saying he kept the Brewers in town — for, let’s not forget, only an additional 13 years past the expiration of its current lease — while also telling his constituents he was a prudent caretaker of their money, because he didn’t give it to the Brewers, he gave it to the county and they gave it to the Brewers.

That’s the best I’ve got, anyway. Anything else to add, WPR?

Milwaukee County Board member Ryan Clancy, who is also a state representative and a member of the socialist caucus, said he doesn’t believe public dollars should be spent for stadium improvements.

“You know legislation is bad when both the socialists and the conservatives on the board agree enough to sign onto the same resolution opposing it,” Clancy said.

Now there’s a quote! You should have led with that, and honestly so should I. Ending with it is pretty good too, though, so let’s leave it at that.