UPDATE: Milwaukee Common Council and Mayor sign City's Portion of Arena Deal

Milwaukee Common Council and Mayor Barrett sign City's Portion of Arena Deal at 4th Street and Highland at 1:20 PM.

"It's a gorgeous day to celebrate our city and the future of our city," said Barrett. 

The Milwaukee Common Council approved the city's portion of the Milwaukee Bucks arena financing plan.  

The City is responsible for about $47 million of the $500 million plan. 

Alderman Nic Kovac is one of three to vote against the plan, he said, “So we're not going to get paid back for the arena. We're going to keep the Bucks which feels good, I feel good about keeping the Bucks, but I don't feel good about the donation required to keep the Bucks."

Barrett disagrees with Kovac’s interpretation of the deal, saying this is not just a donation to the franchise. At a press conference Tuesday afternoon Barrett said, "I see this as an investment, and I know others can disagree, but for me this is an investment in this city and an investment in the future. I'm betting on the future of this city today."

Before the Common Council voted Alderman Ashanti Hamilton said it was an opportunity.

"I don't think that this is glossy-eyed or being too optimistic about it," Milwaukee Alderman Ashanti Hamilton said.  "I think it's a huge opportunity  that's sitting in front of us and we don't have the option of not taking our own future in our hands."

Alderwoman Milele Coggs says this is an opportunity the city can't pass up.

"The continuum of opportunity on these projects that are happening now," Coggs said. "And that we know will be happening over the next couple of years could be The very thing that helps to take us out of the top ten of poverty in the nation. It could be the very thing that help change and alter and improve condition in the communities that we serve."