American Family Field. Image courtesy: Milwaukee Brewers/Twitter
MADISON, WI (WSAU) – Speaker Robin Vos’s comments on what to do about the Milwaukee Brewers stadium situation have caught the attention of the fact-checkers at PolitiFact.
Back in March, Vos made an appearance on the “Wisconsin Right Now” podcast and said, “When a basketball player or football or baseball player from another team plays in Wisconsin, that one game’s salary, they pay Wisconsin income tax on it. … So, if for some reason we do not have the Brewers in Wisconsin all of those player salaries that generate dollars for the state of Wisconsin go away.”
When reviewing Vos’s comments, PolitiFact noted that if a pro athlete plays in a state that collects income tax, any money made from that game is taxed as income earned in that state, which is informally known as a “jock tax.”
According to the data, the state made $12.4 million off of the Brewers’ “jock tax” last year alone.
Due to that, PolitiFact said, “Indeed, in 2022 alone, state income taxes on visiting players in the big three leagues topped $50 million. For a statement that is accurate and has nothing significant missing, our rating is True.”
The fact-checking organization also rated a claim by Gov. Tony Evers “Mostly False” when he said the money for upgrades to the Milwaukee Brewers stadium in the governor’s budget is “a bipartisan plan.”
PolitiFact said, “There are some prominent people with Republican ties who are part of a group that supports the plan, which the Evers administration developed with the Brewers. But that’s a far cry from describing the plan itself as bipartisan, particularly when it is being introduced as part of the budget process, which requires Republicans’ support to secure passage. And no incumbent Republican state lawmaker has come out in favor of the plan, let alone any legislative leaders. For a statement that contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression, we rate this claim Mostly False.”
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