How much would city and Milwaukee county taxpayers pay for renovations to American Family Field under a new proposal?

Milwaukee and Milwaukee County would together pay one-third of the public funding costs for renovations to American Family Field, under a new proposal.

The city and county would be on the hook for more than $200 million over nearly three decades under a plan announced Monday that would put about $600 million in state and local funding toward the ballpark renovations.

The Milwaukee Brewers pledged $100 million, and the ball club would have to extend its lease of the publicly owned stadium through the end of 2050.

The legislation amounts to "an opportunity for us to keep Major League Baseball in Wisconsin," Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said at a ballpark news conference.

The announcement by legislative Republicans came on the heels of passage earlier this year of a separate law that boosted state shared revenue to local governments including Milwaukee and Milwaukee County, allowed the city to implement a 2% sales tax and the county to boost its sales tax from 0.5% to 0.9%.

How much would Milwaukee and Milwaukee County be required to pay?

Milwaukee County and the City of Milwaukee would together pay a total of $7.5 million each year, totaling around $200 million.

That would be broken down into $5 million in yearly county payments and $2.5 million city payments, according to a memo from the state Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

The payments would begin in 2024 and continue either until Dec. 31, 2050, or after $202.5 million in total has been deposited, whichever is earlier.

What would happen if Milwaukee and Milwaukee County didn't pay?

If the city or county failed to make the full annual payment by July 1, the state Department of Revenue would reduce the local government's revenue from the state by the difference between the payment due and any amount that had already been paid by that date.

The Department of Revenue would then pay the amount of the reduction into a baseball park facilities improvement fund.

The mechanism to exact payment would be in place from 2024 to 2050.

Why would Milwaukee and Milwaukee County be required to pay part of the cost?

Vos and other Republicans have said Milwaukee and Milwaukee County should have to pay in for stadium updates.

State Sen. Dan Feyen, R-Fond du Lac, a legislation co-author, said the city and county have the most to gain by having a professional baseball team in their community.

What have city and county leaders said about the payments?

Mayor Cavalier Johnson said he wants the team to stay in Milwaukee but that the stadium is owned by a state-created district, not the city.

How this potential new bill will factor into the 2024 city budget Johnson announced Tuesday remains to be seen.

He raised concerns about the city footing the bill for part of the American Family Field improvements when the city hasn't begun collecting the new 2% sales tax and has only estimates of how much funding it will bring in.

Johnson also said he would prefer that the city not have to contribute and that the team should be encouraged to create commercial developments next to the ballpark that would generate property tax revenue if the site's exemption is changed. He envisioned hotels, apartments and more in the space, pointing to the Deer District at Fiserv Forum downtown and Titletown near Lambeau Field in Green Bay.

"That's something that I think we should continue to push the Brewers on ... to make sure that we don't have 20 years from now a sea of parking around American Family Field," Johnson said. "We should see something more than that."

As for concerns that tailgating would be curtailed if parking were to be removed, Johnson said the Brewers are "smart enough to figure out how to incorporate development over at American Family Field and still keep enough parking for folks to be able to tailgate."

Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic, who chairs the Common Council's powerful Finance and Personnel Committee, echoed the desire to keep the Brewers but also said the increased cost would create a new hole in the city's budget.

She, along with council President José G. Pérez and Alds. JoCasta Zamarripa, Michael J. Murphy, Lamont Westmoreland, Mark A. Borkowski and Scott Spiker, slammed the amount of the proposed city payment, saying through 2029 the city will still be paying more than $1 million annually for the last stadium package.

"Any reduction of shared revenue directly impacts all residents of the city, many of whom do not have the means or desire to attend a game," they said.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said in a statement that the baseball club is an important community asset but that the county is also still facing significant financial challenges in the coming years.

"Any new proposal by the State of Wisconsin must recognize that reality," he said.

Several elected officials in each of the local governments oppose the local stadium spending, raising the possibility of additional negotiations before a final deal is reached.

How much are Milwaukee and Milwaukee County expected to bring in from sales tax at the ballpark?

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau provided estimates of the additional sales tax that the city, county and state could each expect to bring in next year from people who travel from outside each jurisdiction to attend games.

The logic of the more conservative calculation is that a Wisconsin resident, for instance, would likely spend the same amount of discretionary income within the state borders without the Brewers while a Chicago Cubs fan may not come to Wisconsin without the draw of an away game.

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimated the county's 0.9% sales tax would bring in about $1.3 million in 2024 that could be attributed to the Brewers being in the county. That sum reflects the revenue from people who attend games but live outside Milwaukee County.

The city, with its 2% sales tax, would be expected to bring in $3.5 million in revenue next year attributable to the Brewers being in the city, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. That sum reflects the revenue from people who attend games but live outside the city.

The state, which has a 5% sales tax, would be expected to bring in about $11.2 million total in sales tax, though only about $1.6 million would be expected to come from people outside of Wisconsin.

Do the counties around Milwaukee pay any costs?

No. The original 0.1% sales tax that made construction of the stadium possible was levied in Ozaukee, Washington, Waukesha and Racine counties in addition to Milwaukee County. The tax expired in 2020.

The counties surrounding Milwaukee County were not included in the funding formula lawmakers proposed Monday.

What happens now?

The Republican-controlled Legislature and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers must approve the deal, along with elected officials in Milwaukee County and the City of Milwaukee.

Vos is planning an Assembly vote next month.

Alison Dirr can be reached at [email protected]. Tom Daykin can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What to know about Milwaukee's proposed share of Brewers stadium costs