Right now, our County Executive race is focusing on a discussion about the Sales Tax. Adam Gitter is proposing that the County share sales tax revenue with municipalities. His hope is that it will provide extra revenue to fund road repairs. Josh Schoemann wants to maintain the status quo, and raises legitimate concerns about how Gitter's proposal would impact County Finances.
To be blunt, if you believe that excessive taxation is theft (a belief I have) then the whole issue can be compared to two thieves arguing over how they will share the loot (The COunty and Municipalities begin the thieves in this analogy).
Long before I was elected to the County Board, and long before Josh Schoemann was appointed as County Administrator, the County Board made the decision to implement a "temporary" sales tax. A few years later, still long before Schoemann came to the county and still long before my election, the decision was made to start using the sales tax to fund routine operations.
In January of 2017, after being on the board for only 9 months, I was confronted with a vote about renewing the sales tax. There was no plan on how we could get rid of it, just a default assumption that we had to renew it. In short, County financing was dependent upon continuing the sales tax. To be blunt, it seemed like we were trapped in a situation of renewing the tax or destroying county operations.
While I would love to end the County sales tax, it doesn't seem realistic. In my 2018 reelection campaign, I promised to push for plans for how we might end the sales tax. This is the one promise I have made that I have made no progress on. In a private discussion with one county official, the picture looked bleak. Massive cuts to the sheriff's department, massive delays in repairing county highways, and massive cuts to County Administration.
What does seem realistic is to fight any effort to implement new taxes. There was talk in 2017 about a wheel tax, and I made my opposition to that idea known. I voted no on the POWTS fee (tax) every time it came up for a vote.
Regarding the sales tax, the lawsuit against Brown County may settle the issue. The Wisconsin Institute of law and Liberty is suing. The basis of their suit---Wisconsin law states that sales taxes cannot as an additional revenue source to fund new spending, but instead must be used entirely for property tax relief. If the suit is successful, the sales tax sharing scheme can't fund more road repairs.
In the end though, the whole sales tax discussion really does look like a bunch of thieves fighting over the loot.
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