Counties to divvy up $4.3M tax surplus
Funds came in after cancellation of controversial stadium sales tax
The five Milwaukee-area counties where a special sales tax was charged to pay for Miller Park will be getting a mid-season bonus.
That’s because the state Department of Revenue has decided to take a $4.3 million surplus generated by the now-terminated tax and distribute the windfall among those counties.
The money has been sitting — in limbo — with the Southeast Wisconsin Professional Baseball Park District, the landlord for the Milwaukee Brewers’ retractable roof dome stadium.
Its board voted unanimously in March to end the 0.1% sales tax because all of the Miller Park district’s debts had been paid off. The tax, which started 23 years ago, had been in effect in Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Washington, Waukesha and Racine counties.
But weeks after taking this action, the Miller Park district received two payments of more than $4.3 million from the state Revenue Department, which collected income from the tax and distributed to the district. The district had no use for the extra money and didn’t want it.
Miller Park district officials offered to return the surplus cash to the state but were rejected. As the Journal Sentinel reported last week, the money remained with the district, which didn’t know what to do with it.
Now state Revenue Department has changed course.
Patty Mayers, spokeswoman for the agency, said officials there have concluded that they have the authority to take the surplus tax income and return it to the