The most successful political plans need to be simple because politicians always find a way to make even the easy things overly complicated.
To get the Bucks’ arena funded, we need a straightforward plan of attack. We need something that can unify a state of Wisconsin’s leaders, the majority of whom are extremely opposed to paying taxes for a stadium in Milwaukee since they don’t represent Milwaukee. We need a plan that can unify Republicans and Democrats. We need something crazy enough that it just might work.
Here is the mission brief: We need to get every single citizen in Wisconsin to demand that we change the Milwaukee Bucks’ name to the Wisconsin Bucks. I’ll settle for a vocal 51% of the state’s support. #WisconsinBucks.
Yes, it might seem like a comical plan, but there won’t be anything funny about the Bucks leaving Wisconsin. I’ll quickly break down why I’ve changed my plan, and why it’s going to save our Bucks. Seriously.
I’ve tried telling people that we need to tax tourists rather than Wisconsinites, a plan that all of us should have agreed upon. I still think this is the best plan, because then none of us have to pay any taxes. But, politics can make even the most logical of arguments seem insane. Currently, only about 18% of the plan is being funded by the tourist taxes: the hotel and rental car taxes. Approximately 50% is being paid by taxes levied on Milwaukee constituents who will directly benefit from the new $1 billion of infrastructure being built downtown. The final 32% is being raised by state taxes. This means that under the proposed plan, everyone in Wisconsin is going to have to pay.
If a third of the public funds are coming from everyone in Wisconsin, then we should probably name the team accordingly. Actually that’s ridiculous, we should definitely appeal to all Wisconsinites if we’re forcing all Wisconsinites to pay for the new arena. Actually calling ourselves the Wisconsin Bucks may solve the entire issue of funding the new arena.
Simply by changing the Bucks’ name would likely increase our tax revenue and solve the whole political issue. Why? Because one third of the counties in Wisconsin are more supportive of the Bulls than they are of the Bucks. (Click on this sentence to see the New York Times’ breakdown of NBA fandom on a colorful map.) One third of Wisconsin is Bulls’ red. That is embarrassing.
The fact that Wisconsinites aren’t cheering for the Bucks indicates that there is a large portion of potential tax revenue being lost here! If more people are excited about the Bucks, the more likely they are to come to games and, in turn, raise taxes.
Currently the problem is that Wisconsin lawmakers not representing districts in Milwaukee County don’t want to pay taxes for the new arena. But, we can ensure the Bucks represent everyone who is subsidizing them by changing our name.
The Wisconsin Bucks would instantly engage millions of additional fans in the depths of southern and northern Wisconsin. If our politicians won’t agree to implement my simple idea of taxing tourists rather than Wisconsin citizens (I still don’t get how politicians haven’t agreed on this, because all of our taxpayers would no longer be burdened with paying for the stadium), then let’s at least agree on unifying our state behind the Wisconsin Bucks.
#WisconsinBucks #ChangeWEsconsinCanBelieveIn
May the era of “Our Team, Our Town” give way to “Our Bucks, Our State”!
Image via bucks.com