(The Center Square) – A pair of Wisconsin legislators want $1.25 million in state funds to offset the costs of additional law enforcement in the Green Bay area during the NFL draft, which will run from April 24-26.
The basis of the request are economic impact claims from both the tourism entity Discover Green Bay and the Green Bay Packers, with Reps. Dave Steffen, R-Howard, and Ben Franklin, R-De Pere, holding a Monday press conference touting the budget request along with Green Bay-area law enforcement leaders.
“Next week, we will be the center of the sports universe and we want to ensure that this place is safe,” Steffen said.
Steffen said that those claims include that there will be more than $100 million in economic impact from the event and more than $5 million in state sales tax.
But economics continue to question claims made about the draft and its overall economic impact. Last year, Visit Detroit claimed the draft created $213.6 million of economic impact and Kansas City made the claim of more than $100 million in 2023.
The issue is that those economic impact claims from local tourism officials calculate, and inflate, the amount sold in the Green Bay area during the week without figuring in what would have been spent without the event or the lost revenue from the crowding out of other events.
“Free paper idea for a young economist,” economist J.C. Bradbury wrote about the Green Bay economic impact claims. “Every year these bogus economic claims about the NFL draft come out. Economists haven’t studied it directly because it makes no sense. But we really could use an actual serious study to counteract this BS PR.”
The lawmakers are asking for the $1.25 million in law enforcement funds to go to the Brown County Sheriff’s Department ($500,000), Green Bay Police Department ($475,000), Green Bay Metro Fire Department ($200K) and Ashwaubenon Public Safety Department ($75,000) and estimate that the funding will pay for two-thirds of anticipated public safety expenses associated with the NFL Draft.
The proposal is similar to the more than $1 million Gov. Tony Evers put in his budget proposal for additional law enforcement resources at the draft.
“We have been committed to this endeavor for many, many months,” Brown County Sheriff Todd Delain said at the press conference. “… To be able to be reimbursed for this will certainly be impactful to us long term.”
