DOA Secretary Mike Huebsch
Maintaining the NBA’s presence in Wisconsin will remain a budget priority – and maybe a tough sell.
Joint Finance Committee co-chair, Representative John Nygren (R-Nygren), said Monday that the Bucks owners should contribute more toward construction of a new arena. Marc Lasry and Jamie Dinan have pledged at least $150 million.
A Forbes magazine list released Monday identified Dinan and Lasry as two of the 400 richest Americans.
Governor Scott Walker’s proposed 2017-2017 state budget includes $220 million in state bonding toward construction of a new NBA arena in downtown Milwaukee.
“What the governor recognized is, first and foremost, a significant decrease to the state budget of the Milwaukee Bucks leave,” outgoing state Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch told finance committee on Monday.
Nygren told a press briefing prior to Monday’s committee meeting that he’d like to see Lasry and Dinan contribute more towards the arena’s cost.
The NBA has said that if a new arena is not built by fall 2017, the league can buy back the team for $575 million.