Monday, December 14, 2009

Looking to Double a Tax in Milwaukee

So let me get this straight...

With revenues down 20% this year, the Wisconsin Center District board on Wednesday will consider increasing the county-wide food and beverage tax from 0.25% to 0.50%.

Franklyn Gimbel, chairman of the district’s board, said Monday that the board was considering the action in order to meet its debt-service payments and pay its bills.

[...]

Also through August, event-room fees, the main source of income at the Midwest Airlines Center, totaled $2.49 million, more than $458,000 under budget. Concessions revenue and advertising revenue also were down.

...the enterprise is failing to attract enough business to meet projected revenues, so they want to double the tax to put more taxpayer dollars into the money pit?  May I suggest that they shouldn’t receive a single additional tax dollar until they show an ability to run the place well?

(2) Comments
Posted by Owen at 2036 hrs
Politics + Politics - Wisconsin

  1. The people of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County and, for that matter the State of Wisconsin have been making themselves a doormat for this kind of irresponsible taxing since I was a child and before.  They (and consequently, we) deserve it.

    Posted by Steve on December 14, 2009 at 2202 hrs


  2. I agree with Belling on this. The convention center board and president need to go. They are failing miserably, and allowing a lovely (albeit too small) facility to become a laughing stock.

    Increasing the tax is not going to solve the problem, it is merely going to allow the board to continue bumbling along for another few years until they need to raise it again. Our community is saturated with convention and meeting centers, and in order to make the Midwest center function properly they are going to have to figure out an attractive promotions package. We need some creativity on that board, not a bunch of layabouts who think that raising a tax to further subsidize their failure is a good idea.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 15, 2009 at 0656 hrs


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