The state of Wisconsin has taken another big step towards keeping the Bucks in Milwaukee. On July 15, the state senate passed the bill to allocate $250 million in public funding for a new arena and on Tuesday afternoon, the bill passed the Wisconsin State Assembly as well. The next step is for Governor Scott Walker to sign it.
USA Today‘s Jeff Zillgitt says Gov. Walker, unsurprisingly, is expected to sign the bill in the coming weeks.
Walker signing the bill isn’t the end of the process, however. Zillgitt outlined the next steps for the Bucks in a tweet:
Bucks president Peter Feigin issued a statement following the State Assembly’s passing of the bill:
Today, our collective effort to create a world-class sports and entertainment district in the heart of Milwaukee took a monumental step forward thanks to the bipartisan leadership of elected officials in Madison. We’re incredibly grateful for the commitment of state, county and city officials to work together in a historic fashion to help shape this public-private partnership. There’s still work to be done and we look forward to building on this progress with the city and county, but the passage of legislation today makes our future much clearer. The Bucks will not only remain home in Wisconsin, but we’ll soon begin a transformative economic development project that will help revitalize our community and region.
The support from the state legislature was always the question mark for the Bucks’ arena deal. Gov. Walker has supported it from the beginning, and once he signs the bill, there shouldn’t be too many more hangups in getting construction of the arena underway. There are still steps to take before it’s official, but it looks like the Bucks will be in Milwaukee for the foreseeable future.