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Limit to their love Fans keeping tax returns rather than donating to PackersPosted: Saturday March 29, 2003 11:19 PMAPPLETON, Wis. (AP) -- Wisconsinites love their Green Bay Packers, but apparently not enough to donate their tax returns to the team's stadium renovation. The state Department of Revenue said preliminary results from tax returns filed in January and February show that a total of $48,309 was donated to help pay for the renovation of Lambeau Field. That's an average of just under $8 per contribution from the 6,039 returns filed in that time. The tax return checkoff began in 2001 as part of legislation that authorized a half-percent sales tax in Brown County to help pay for the stadium project. Last year, fewer than 1 percent of the 3.9 million who filed returns checked off the box to donate to the $295 million stadium renovation. Contributions in 2002 totaled $226,738, an average of just over $10 for the more than 22,000 who donated. Taxpayers "don't even talk about it," when they bring in their returns to Bob Strick, owner of Bob Strick Tax & Accounting Service in the Town of Menasha. Todd Behm, a tax shareholder at Schenck Business Solutions of Appleton, said fewer than five taxpayers of about 100 he has filed this year have made a contribution. "There's been nothing significant," he said. "I didn't have anybody do it last year." But Greg Kuehl, deputy director of the Green Bay-Brown County Professional Football Stadium District that oversees the renovations, said organizers had no experience, so any money that came in was a bonus. "This exceeded our projections, I believe, but I don't recall that there were ever strong official projections from the state," Kuehl said. Richard Grade, director of financial and management services for the Department of Revenue, said the figures could shift yet, since March, April and May are the months when the state processes the most tax returns. Corey Kolbe, tax manager at Wipfli in Appleton, said the company includes the donation checkoff in its package to clients, but he has not yet had any takers. "I haven't had anybody ask me about it," he said. |
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