AB 93

Under current law, a professional baseball park district (district) is created in

each county with a population of at least 600,000 (presently, only Milwaukee County)

and all counties that are contiguous to that county (in relation to Milwaukee County,

these counties are Ozaukee County, Racine County, Washington County and

Waukesha County). A district is governed by a board that consists of six persons

appointed by the governor, two persons appointed by the chief executive officer of the

most populous county within the district's jurisdiction, one person appointed by the

chief executive officer of each of the other counties in the jurisdiction, and one person

appointed by the mayor of the most populous city within the jurisdiction.

A district has a variety of powers. Among these, a district may acquire,

construct, equip, maintain, improve, operate, and manage baseball park facilities

and may set standards governing the use of, and the conduct within, baseball park

facilities. A district is authorized to impose a sales tax and a use tax at a rate of no

more than 0.1 percent. Also, a district may issue bonds for the purpose of purchasing,

acquiring, leasing, constructing, extending, adding to, improving, conducting,

controlling, operating, or managing baseball park facilities. Bonds issued by the

district must be secured only by the district's interest in any baseball park facilities,

by income from these facilities, and by the sales tax and use tax that the district is

authorized to levy. The district may not collect such taxes after the calendar quarter

in which the district certifies to the Department of Revenue that the district has

retired all of its bonds.

This bill limits the district's authority to issue bonds and to expend tax moneys.

Under this bill, with an exception, a district may issue bonds only if: 1) the date on

which the bonds are payable is not later than the latest date on which outstanding

district bonds are payable; and 2) the total amount of principal and interest that

must be paid for outstanding bonds is not increased by the issuance of refunding

bonds. Also, a district may expend tax moneys only for payments of principal and

interest on bonds issued by the district, current operating expenses, or routine

maintenance of Miller Park facilities.

This bill also alters the procedure for terminating the sales tax and use tax

levied by the district. Under this bill, the authority of the district to levy these taxes

ends after the Legislative Fiscal Bureau determines that: 1) the bonds of the district

have been retired; and 2) a sufficient fund for routine maintenance has been funded.

This bill also provides that a district may annually spend no more than 4

percent of expected revenues for administrative expenses and must spend not less

than 75 percent of expected revenues for bond related purposes.