GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) - On Wednesday, Governor Tony Evers announced that he is rewarding the city of Green Bay nearly $2 million to help cover public safety costs from the NFL Draft.
The Joint Finance Committee rejected the NFL Draft security cost reimbursement last week.
The three-day NFL Draft brought 600,000 attendees to the league’s smallest market, with an estimated economic impact of more than $94 million to Wisconsin.
Gov. Evers and Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich announced that the grant will be funded through the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC).
This is the same grant that Representative David Steffen applied for.“Great news for property taxpayers in Brown County. Having that amount of money covered by WEDC through the state is tremendous. So, it’s a great impact, glad it came through,” says Rep. Steffen.
Local public safety officials are grateful for the help.
“A big strain, and you know again we would have had to come up with some solutions to try and figure that out, but again it was probably at a point where it would not have been manageable for us with our budget. So, this really makes a difference,” says Green Bay Fire Chief Matthew Knott.
The Green Bay Fire Department is receiving over $400,000, while the Green Bay Police Department is receiving $530,000.
That money will go toward their overtime budgets.
“Our overtime budget every year by the end of the year is very tight. And spending almost half of that on one event would’ve forced us to make some really difficult decisions. And we really never want to have a negative impact on public safety, obviously, and so this makes that task a whole lot easier,” says Green Bay Police Chief Chris Davis.
What is left over will go toward the village of Ashwaubenon and Brown County.
Senator Jamie Wall sent out a statement saying: _“I am delighted that Governor Evers did what the Republicans on the state budget-writing committee failed to do last week: recognize that our community’s investment in public safety during the NFL Draft benefitted all of Wisconsin. The $1.8 million grant from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation ensures that our local property taxpayers are no longer left holding the bill.”_
This grant not only helps local public safety, but it also saves taxpayers from helping to foot the bill.
_Copyright 2025 WBAY. All rights reserved._