ADDENDUM::Scott Walker’s $400 Million Arena Subsidy Belies His Tightfisted Image - Bloomberg Politics

Walker, 47, argues that the subsidy is a "good deal," partly because Wisconsin would lose revenue if the Bucks leave, as they had threatened. The owners of the Bucks, a team whose value Forbes pegged at $600 million, will pick up half the cost of the $500 million arena.

The governor has friendships among the team’s owners, including some who contributed to his presidential effort. Through a limited-liability corporation registered under his son’s name, Bucks co-owner Jon Hammes on May 27 donated $150,000 to the super political action committee backing Walker, according to state and federal records.

Hammes didn’t return a phone call to his office seeking comment on the donation.

The super-PAC also received $50,000 on May 15 from Ted Kellner, another Bucks owner, Federal Election Commission records show. Kellner didn’t return a phone message seeking comment on the deal.

Scott Walker’s $400 Million Arena Subsidy Belies His Tightfisted Image - Bloomberg Politics

Gov. Scott Walker seeks $300 million in university cuts, but $220 million to build Bucks a new arena

Educating Wisconsin's residents, however, is just a gigantic money drain. How does getting an education help anyone? How does having a college-educated workforce help Wisconsin, especially when compared to the revenues that could be gotten by wooing hotel visits by visiting sporting teams? No sir, you young people and educated people need to learn that we in America can no longer afford to have nice things these days. If you wanted a high-paying career or want to work in a well-appointed, state-funded venue that the politicians of the state can devote themselves to building, you should have done something decent with yourself and become a member of a prominent sporting team and/or the owner of a sporting team. You know, a real career. Grab a ball, junior, and hope you make the cut.

And this is why we cannot have nice things, and why Scott Walker will run for president on a platform of doing for the nation what he did for Wisconsin, which is to explain to all the little people that they should not expect to have nice things and then setting about to prove it to them good and hard.

Gov. Scott Walker seeks $300 million in university cuts, but $220 million to build Bucks a new arena