I Oppose a Potential $253 per Year Property Tax Increase

Now that I have your attention, let me tell you what is going on.  National retailers like Walgreens, Shop-Ko, and Menards are all trying to skimp on paying their property taxes, by shifting part of their property tax bill to us.  They are using a legal theory called the Darkstore theory, which bases the property value of profitable stores on the value of vacant stores.

The League of Wisconsin Municipalities estimates that if every national retailer in West Bend is successful in adopting this strategy, the average property tax bill for homeowners like us in West Bend will go up $253.89 per year.

Walgreens has already succeeded in pushing $160,000 in property taxes onto us.  Their 2 West Bend stores were valued at $7.5 million and $6.8 million, but they have succeeded in getting those values reduced to $2.5 million.

Luckily, help is on the way.  County Board Resolution 64, which I proposed, works to support State Legislators from our area, like Senator Duey Stroebel, who are seeking to end the Darkstore Theory.  It mirrors a similar resolution put forward by West Bend Alderman Chris Jenkins.

Releiver Route Updated Schedule

In my post on January 22, I had posted the schedule that was published in the agenda packet for the January 14th Joint meeting of the Executive and Public Works Committtees.  That schedule has been changed.

The change of the 2050 plan to Route 11 ill now be voted on at the February Joint meeting of the Executive and Public Works committees.  This meeting will occur on February 7th, and if the changedis passed, it will g to the full County Board on February 14th.

Right now, looking at the old route and comparng it to Route 11, Route 11 is a more effective route so it makes sense to change the plan.  The old route gets off at Highway K, just like the new route, but works its way towards Arther Road and is much less efficient.

Having this plan in place will also enable us to quickly submit a proposal for federal grant money if any new federal funding for road-building, similar to President Obama's 2008 stimulus plan, becomes available.  In a discusson with the County Administraor, he mentioned that if we had pursued this in 2008, the Federal Government would probably have covered 80% of the construction costs.  We know that President Trump is considering enacting a similar stimulus plan.  While I am generally against stimulus spending, as it is our money that it being taxed and is equivalent to park barrel spending, if Trump is going to do it we should at least be ready to try to get our fair share.  If we can turn a $25 million dollar project into a $5 million dollar project, that is worth pursuing (setting aside the issue of whether we should be build the reliever route or not).

For these reasons, changing the route is something that makes sense to support, and it might be fiscally irresponsible to not keep this option open.  I do want to investigate the intersection of Highway K and 175 before finalizing my decision on how I will vote on this.

Approving this plan would not mean that we start building, it just means that the official plan would be updated from the route approved more than a decade ago.  It also would not mean that I will support the reliever route when it comes before the Board.