Retire Miller Park Stadium Tax This Year: Wisconsin Legislators

MILWAUKEE COUNTY, WI -- The five-county Miller Park Stadium Tax could end at the end of 2019 under a bill currently being circulated by Republican and Democratic legislators.

The new bill, titled "Ending the Miller Park Tax" calls for retiring the 0.1 percent sales tax that has been collected in Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Washington, Waukesha and Racine counties since 1996.

"After 22 years and over half a billion dollars raised, it is time to end the 0.1 percent Miller Park Tax in Southeastern Wisconsin. This tax was supposed to end 5 years ago, in 2014.
The tax has been in effect since 1996 and is collected in Racine, Milwaukee, Waukesha, Washington and Ozaukee counties," State Sen. Van Wanggaard said in a prepared statement.

The bill, co-sponsored by Wanggaard (R-Racine), Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee) and state Rep. Bob Wittke (R-Caledonia), retires the Miller Park tax on Dec. 31, 2019. In addition, the bill prevents the stadium district board from taking on any new debt after June 30 that cannot be paid off in full by the end of the year.

Stadium board officials are on record saying that the stadium tax could be retired by either 2019 or 2020, according to a JSOnline report from earlier in 2018:

"Assuming no significant shift from current economic conditions, the district should be able to satisfy all of its current and future obligations, and therefore retire the 0.1% sales tax, sometime between late calendar year 2019 and early calendar year 2020," says the conclusion of the report by consultant Public Financial Management Inc.

Patch File Photo by Scott Anderson