Billionaire Bucks Arena gets funding from Debt Collections and Penalty Fees from the Poor.

Corporate welfare has now completely displaced public funding for the common good. Like our public colleges. Although not a direct exchange of money, it's awful close, and highlights what really matters now in our Republican hellhole of a state.

Now word is getting out that the poor and fiscally strapped Wisconsinites will be the ones paying for the Buck's arena. As WPR's Shawn Johnson explains, the idea is ruthless:



This is outrageous beyond words, so I'm glad Think Progress saved me from having to write about this:

Wisconsinites Blast Scott Walker’s Stadium Deal As ‘Outrageous’: Building a new, publicly financed basketball stadium for the Milwaukee Bucks is either a horrendous example of corporate welfare and official corruption, or a chance to reinvigorate an economically depressed city. Several local officials are also speaking out against the county’s promise to collect $4 million per year in unpaid debts from residents, plus a penalty fee of 15 percent, to contribute to the stadium. For example, a woman who owed $1,000 for an old traffic ticket would be charged $1,150.

Milwaukee County Supervisor John Weishan, Jr. called the proposal to go after unpaid ambulance rides, delinquent property taxes and court fees “crony capitalism.”

“This plan shifts the cost of the new arena from the state and the Milwaukee Bucks’ new wealthy owners to the poorest in our community. I will not foreclose on someone’s home or shake down a senior for unpaid medical bills in order to build an arena for millionaires and billionaires.”

Whether or not it’s morally right to collect these debts to pay for the stadium, some county officials say it may not be possible, because most of the residents that owe that money are indigent.

Really Bad for other Local businesses: Redistributes wealth upward:

Economics professor Michael Rosen at Milwaukee Area Technical College said, “People have a fixed entertainment budget. So if they go see the Bucks and spend $60 or $80 on a ticket, that’s money they’re not using to go to the theater or movies or out to eat. It’s not new money, it’s just redistributed. That’s why stadiums have no positive impact on economic growth.” He also noted that most Bucks player don’t live year-round in Milwaukee, so “millions of dollars in their salaries will leak out of the community.”

Walker's corporate Socialism; otherwise known as neo-fascism: The major media is now sounding the alarm as well:

Scott Walker, Our First Socialist President: First, the Communists: Socialism is "a way of organizing a society in which major industries are owned and controlled by the government." It's the state of Wisconsin using tax dollars to build a sports arena for the billionaire owners of the Milwaukee Bucks, and its main proponent is Governor Scott Walker.

If Gov. Walker is to be the candidate of the true believers, the free market, Ayn Rand, and austerity bugs, he's got some explaining to do. What's going on is something of a hypocrisy test. If socialism is bad, if Obamacare is bad, if income redistribution is bad, well, how can two hundred million in corporate subsidies be good? Obama, by the way, has jumped onto the sports as socialism issue and proposed an end to federal tax subsidies for sports facilities. He's absolutely right as a matter of economic policies. We can't get our roads fixed, but we can subsidize the richest and most successful corporations in America. I don't think so.

DOA's Huebsch on tribe's "Menominee Bucks for Milwaukee Bucks" offer, 'we don't believe you!!!'

Just amazing. The Menominee tribes offer to put up the rest of the money for the Bucks arena, and to cover the Potawatomi's losses and any other costs, exposed Scott Walker's politically convenient decision as just another shrewd calculation on his way to the White House. After all, Iowa conservative warned him not to do it:

Walker isn't even considering the proposal, and no one is buying Mike Huebsch's annoying and disrespectful shrug that the offer isn't believable or that it's a media ploy. Here's WKOW's Greg Neumann's coverage:

jsonline: Just hours after the Menominee tribe floated the idea of paying $220 million to cover the taxpayers' share for a new downtown Milwaukee arena … it would post to cover any potential state losses from the Potawatomi and Ho-Chunk casinos … in exchange for approval of its proposed Kenosha casino, Gov. Scott Walker's administration quickly shot down the offer.

No dice, said Mike Huebsch, Walker's administration secretary. "We're finding out through news releases," Huebsch said in Madison. "When you get to the point that you're negotiating by news release, you realize that there isn't any validity to these offers. On looking at it, I don't believe these are genuine offers that they can fulfill."

What, no meetings, no discussions, no negotiations? So what about the jobs and taxpayer money saved? Iowa presidential primary voters said NO:

Iowa  Conservatives there had urged him to reject the project. From the Menominee point of view, the commitment includes the $220 million toward an arena, a $275 million bond to cover losses, plus the estimated $1.2 billion in Kenosha gaming proceeds the tribe has committed to the state. 

Sen. Van Wanggaard (R-Racine) said if Walker rejected the latest offer on the casino, it would be difficult for him to support Walker's proposed budget that includes bonding for the Bucks. 

Walker throws $220 Million at Buck's, cuts UW Funding by $330 million. What an investment.

Just amazing. As pointed out by Jake's Economic TA Fun House in the picture below, nothing said "Republican" and Scott Walker more than the proposal to give the Bucks a $220 million loan, while cutting the UW's funding by $330 million, all in the same budget. 

The Buck's repayment plan is pure supply side economics; give the rich money, and over time, on the hook taxpayers will get it all back and then some. Never mind the fact that the general public will pay for all of this through much higher cable bills, thank you very much:   

The linchpin to Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to invest $220 million in state bonds to help build a new, multipurpose arena in downtown Milwaukee is last year's agreement between the National Basketball Association and Turner Broadcasting and the Walt Disney Co., which owns ABC and ESPN. The prospect of increased revenue gave Walker assurances that capturing the new income-tax growth from visiting NBA players, members of the Milwaukee Bucks and even the team's employees would be enough to pay the debt service on state-backed bonds ... lead to Wisconsin collecting more withholding tax if the Bucks stay and play in Milwaukee." Once the bonds are repaid, the tax growth would return to the state, Walker said.

Yes it's just more of that magical trickle down thinking. I wouldn't be so down on this had it not been for Walker's hit on UW. But even worse, the taxpayer loan of $220 million is described by Walker as, and I'm not making this up, "a free market approach."

"It's a free market approach," Walker told members of the MMAC's board of directors on Tuesday. "It's only the growth that pays for this in the future."

The eventual total cost will be between $300 - $400 million over so many years. Not a big concern for our free market loving governor and billionaire team owners on public assistance. But not everyone is happy on the right. To sum it up:

Americans for Prosperity for Wisconsin expressed disappointment: “While it appears that some protections are being put into place, the governor’s plan would put the state and taxpayers on the hook for future obligations," the group said in a statement. "Funding for sports arenas should not be the responsibility of the state and the hard-working taxpayers of Wisconsin."

According to the WKOW report below, our proud scheming governor is shown explaining how genius his plan is. It also puts us on the hook until 2046, maybe in my lifetime.