Brown County Receiving Additional $534,000 Rebate From Lambeau Field Sales Tax

Brown County and its municipalities will be splitting an additional $534,000 from the state of Wisconsin after already receiving a $17.4 million tax rebate from a sales tax that ended last year.

The extra money brings the return to a grand total just shy of $18 million, the largest return of sales tax in state history, said state Rep. David Steffen, R-Green Bay.

The money comes from an extra half cent sales tax that paid to renovate Lambeau Field that ended last year after beginning in 2001.The tax paid for $300 million in improvements to the Green Bay Packers stadium.

The Wisconsin Department of Revenue released the updated figures Wednesday after audits were complete.

Steffen introduced legislation to guarantee the money went back to the county and its municipalities.

“One of the biggest things I wanted to do was avoid the state taking the money and spending it on whatever it wanted,” Steffen said.

Another local representative, state Sen. Robert Cowles, R-Green Bay, said the local communities deserve the money.

“Eighty percent of the money that was raised to pay for the Lambeau bonds came from right in this area,” Cowles said. “Now, there was obviously people that are transient, tourists, etc, coming in and out of Brown County (and) did pay a sales tax but our county essentially went alone.”

The county will receive 25 percent of the return, the remainder is divvied up among the communities based on population. By law the money must be used for debt relief, tax cuts or economic development.