Taxing dilemma: Should there be a referendum on new arena?

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- The Milwaukee County Board met on Thursday, April 24th to decide if there should be a referendum so voters can decide if they want to pay for a new arena.

"That was the buzz. I think a building could have fallen over and nobody would have noticed because everybody was talking about the sale of that team," said Milwaukee County Supervisor, Deanna Alexander.

The Board spent the morning debating whether to keep a referendum asking residents if they'd support a new arena tax, or send it back to committee for changes.

"I do have a problem with sending it back to committee," said Milwaukee County Supervisor, David Cullen.

The discussion focused on the wording of the referendum. It was originally written before the team had new owners. Now, there are questions about how it should move forward since new ownership will take over the Bucks.

"Let's leverage our own ability to use those referendums and our cultural assets and our great needs we have to see if we can accomplish something, said Milwaukee County Supervisor, Patricia Jursik.

Steve Baas, of the MMAC, watched the debate and saw the board vote 12-6 to send it back to committee.

"I think the County Board made a prudent decision to wait for more information and to see what has changed concretely in the wake of the Bucks sale," said Baas.

Supervisor David Cullen was one of the six voting against referral.

"I just thought that it would be better to keep it at the board level, have some discussions, figure out how we wanted to structure the language of a question that was fair," said Cullen.

Supervisor Deanna Alexander was in the majority.

"We're taking the prudent route, the safe route, the cautious route but also the responsible route by sending it back to committee to make sure we have the right formulation of a question," said Alexander

Now a Board Committee will take another look at the referendum, possibly make some changes, and most likely bring it back to the full board.

Any referendum must be approved by August 26th to reach the November ballot.