Let's Talk Sales Tax

The City of West Bend has some financial issues.  I don't fault the current Mayor, or the current Common Council.  They inherited a financial mess, and the darkstore lawsuits filed by retailers like Walgreens, Shop-ko, Menards, and Meijer haven't helped them at all.  They want a new revenue stream to fix their budget, and they are eying the County Sales Tax.



I would love to get rid of the sales tax completely.  I wasn't on the board back in the 90s, when it was put in place, but instead inherited it.  I ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility, and removing a revenue source that composes 17% of our revenue is not fiscally responsible.  The County has worked hard to remain in great financial shape.  Sharing our sales tax would mean that we would have to cut important services that the County currently provides to residents throughout the County, including West Bend.  Losing this essential revenue source would penalize us for our hard work in maintaining a fiscally sustainable budget.



The City of West Bend created their situation, they are going to have to look internally for solutions, it's that simple.

To Mayor Barrett: "No, We Won't Fund Your Boondoggle Trolleys"

At this week's (September 2017's) County Board Meeting, the resolution on the table was to endorse Vision 2050, a regional transportation plan that included $360 million in annual transportation funding, all of it to fund rail projects in Milwaukee including a massive expansion of the boondoggle trolley system and several light rail projects.  Vision 2050 proposed paying for this with a new tax structure, including 6 regional tax increases and a new regional tax based on vehicle miles traveled.

From the floor, I made a motion to amend our resolution.  I proposed 1) withholding our endorsement of rail projects, including commuter lines, trolleys, street cars, subways, elevated rail, light rail, rapid transit rail lines, or rail projects by any other name, 2) withholding out approval of Milwaukee public transportation projects unless they were funded by Milwaukee, and 3) withholding our approval of any regional tax.  This motion passed unanimously, sending a clear message to Mayor Barrett: "No, we won't fund your boondoggle trolley."

The plan itself was massive, with rail lines, trolleys, anti-vehicle transportation engineering, and loads of other nonsense.  The funding part of it was not placed within the plan itself.  I had to look for the funding piece, and I am glad I did.

I explain the tax structure Milwaukee proposed in this article:  http://district3bossert.blogspot.com/2018/01/understanding-milwaukees-regional-tax.html.

Below is an image from the plan, showing the 7 proposed taxes: