Brewers bailout heating up

Just like baseball’s pennant race, efforts to keep the Milwaukee Brewers in Wisconsin is also heating up. The Brewers want state help in renovating and maintaining their ballpark, American Family Field. The team suggests it could move from Milwaukee if the state doesn’t pitch in to help pay for stadium improvements. Governor Evers had proposed using $290 million of the state’s surplus to help the team, but that was rejected by the Legislature. This week Assembly Republicans will release their version of a Brewers stadium maintenance fund. Unlike the Governor’s plan, the GOP plan would not use money from the state’s surplus to pay for improvements, but instead would rely on revenue from a tax collected on player’s salaries and sales tax revenue on things like concessions at the game. The devil is in the details, but that sounds like a more creative, and more fair way to get a commitment from the team to remain in Milwaukee beyond 2030. Still, it may be a tough sell. A new poll shows 56% of Milwaukee County residents oppose using tax dollars to support the Brewers and only 26% said they would be more supportive even if it meant the Brewers would leave Milwaukee. The Brewers are an asset to Wisconsin, but there are about 300 million reasons for taxpayers to say enough is enough.