MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Gov. Scott Walker is set to announce terms of a deal to pay for a new $500 million arena to keep the Milwaukee Bucks in Wisconsin amid concerns from Republican lawmakers about how much of the bill taxpayers will foot.
Walker, a likely presidential candidate, has been arguing for months that it will cost the state more in lost income tax revenue if the NBA pulls the Bucks from Milwaukee than it will to pay for a new downtown arena.
Walker took to Twitter on Thursday, ahead of the planned announcement at the state Capitol, to once again defend the deal, the terms of which have yet to be made public.
"Doing nothing on an arena will cost the state $419 million over the next 20 years," Walker tweeted.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, citing unnamed sources, previously reported that taxpayers will be on the hook for $250 million, growing to $400 million including interest. Current Bucks owners would contribute $150 million, with another $100 million coming from former U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, a former team owner.
What Walker announces Thursday will not be "substantially different" from what was previously reported, said state Sen. Alberta Darling, co-chair of the Legislature's budget-writing committee.
"This is a much better deal than most other projects like it around the country," said Darling, who added Walker asked her not to release details of plan ahead of his afternoon news conference.
Walker, team officials, state lawmakers and the Democratic Milwaukee mayor and county executive have been negotiating behind closed doors for weeks.
Republicans who control the Legislature have publicly voiced their displeasure with portions of the plan, raising questions about whether there are enough votes to approve it. And conservatives -- including Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group founded by billionaires Charles and David Koch -- has said the deal is a bad one for taxpayers.
The Journal Sentinel reported Wednesday that a majority of Republican state senators don't want the arena financing plan to come under the two-year $70 billion state budget. An alternative route to passing it could be introducing the plan as a separate bill, where Democrats would join with Republicans to get enough votes in support.
Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Wednesday that the process of passing the plan didn't matter as much as doing what's best for the state. Myranda Tanck, spokeswoman for Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, said Thursday that the plan is to include the Bucks deal in the budget, though introducing it as a separate bill has not been ruled out.
Without a new stadium for the Bucks by 2017, the NBA has said it will buy back the team and relocate it. The team currently plays in the 27-year-old BMO Harris Bradley Center.
The tentative agreement, as reported by the newspaper last month, includes $55 million in bonds from the state and would allow the Wisconsin Center District to issue $93 million in bonds. Allowing the center to issue those bonds would require the Legislature and Walker to change state law to extend the district's repayment period.
The district levies three taxes in Milwaukee County: 3 percent on car rentals, 2.5 percent on hotel rooms and a half-percent on restaurant food and beverage sales. Current law allows the district to increase the rental car tax to 4 percent and the hotel tax to 3 percent. If that is done, Walker has argued, it wouldn't be a new tax.
