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Deciding how to spend stadium tax dollars

Posted at 6:23 PM, May 30, 2016
and last updated 2016-05-30 19:28:23-04

The city of Green Bay has yet to decide how to spend over $4 million in excess stadium tax revenue from Lambeau Field renovations, but a new process could help in the discussions.

Alderman William Galvin suggested a process of ranking the benefits and costs of the 25 proposals to determine what will work best for the city.

"I wanted a way of looking at all these different suggestions, seeing what they'll do to benefit the community, what will it cost out of the tax fund?" he said.

Other criteria in the rankings would include the possibility of matching dollars or grants for certain projects. The plan is to look at the long term effects of each proposal to determine which will best benefit the city and taxpayers.

"We have to look at all of this and I think we have to be fair when we rate this," said Galvin.

They're looking to review the ranking system at the next Finance Committee meeting and take in more input, then have a month to apply the system before the Common Council takes a look.

Galvin said he's hoping they will have it done by July, or August at the latest.

They've already decided to spend $1.2 of the $5.4 million to pay off state trust fund loans. That will save taxpayers $200,000, according to Galvin.

Some of the proposals for where the money would go is a new outdoor events stadium, improvements to the Colburn Park pool, or giving money back to property taxpayers as a tax credit.