AB439 would appropriate $411,500,000 in state and local funds from FY 2023-24 to FY 2045-46, along with $50,000,000 in loans, for improvements to the Milwaukee Brewers baseball stadium.
The Assembly passed AB439 on October 17, 2023, by a vote of 69 to 27. We have assigned pluses to the nays because there is no provision in the Wisconsin Constitution that authorizes either the creation of ‘special districts’ for Major League Baseball teams or the state and local subsidizing of professional sports. Privately-owned billion-dollar organizations, such as the Milwaukee Brewers, should be expected to pay for their own facilities, which they can more than afford. Forcing the people of Wisconsin to furnish proliferate amounts of taxpayer money to fund crony, corporate-sponsored spending bills violates their individual liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights and the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.