Sen. Tim Carpenter is introducing legislation that requires any excess proceeds from the Miller Park sales tax to be returned to the five counties who initially paid it.
In 1995, citizens of Milwaukee, Racine, Washington, Ozaukee and Waukesha counties were asked to pay a sales tax that would be used to finance the construction of Miller Park. They were told the sales tax would end in 2014, but they are continuing to pay for it in 2019, five years longer than they were originally promised.
The District now says they will be ready to officially "sunset" the tax at their March 2020 meeting barring any significant shift in economic conditions.
"Currently, projections that have been made about the process for sunsetting the sales tax estimate that there may be $16,000,000 collected in excess of the revenue needed to meet the state's obligations to the Southeast Wisconsin Professional Baseball Park District," said Sen. Carpenter. "Given the public's substantial financial support in Miller Park's construction, I believe it is only right to return any additional proceeds collected in the sunsetting process to the counties that have made those payments."
