WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — The Marathon County Board of Supervisors will meet tonight with two contested issues on their agenda, the suspension of County Administrator Brad Karger, and the creation of an Annual County Vehicle Registration Fee, otherwise known as a wheel tax.
The proposed $25 fee would be collected when county residents register their vehicles with the DMV for the year. Taxes like this one are a response to a nearly $1 billion deficit in the state transportation budget for 2017.
Wausau Mayor Robert Mielke has also proposed a tax for Wausau residents, and he feels that even with the county tax there’s a chance that Wausau may still need the money because of a lack of county funding in the past when he’s asked them.
The mayor said, “Help with the sales tax. Marathon County can set that and collect from that but Wausau can’t do anything with it. I’ve asked for help with transportation, as far as the buses. I have also asked for help with the mall. I was told no.”
Mielke says that Wausau would certainly not be alone in implementing such a tax to help pay for road construction projects.
“Communities like Appleton, Beloit, Fort Atkinson, Gillette, Janesville, Kaukuana, Milwaukee, Prairie Du Sac, even Tigerton, as well as the counties of Chippewa, St. Croix, and Iowa, and now also, just this week, it sounds like Green Bay and La Crosse are now seriously considering trying to do the same thing.”
Wausau has received pushback from citizens, in part due to a motion passed by the city’s Finance Committee to repeal an ordinance that would force a referendum before any new fees could be established. Both the Wausau fee, if passed, and the county fee would apply to Wausau residents.
Mielke will be attending the meeting to try and argue for Wausau to receive some of the new money the county tax would generate. If he’s successful, the mayor would like to avoid voting on Wausau’s tax next week.
“I’d just like to table it. Maybe I’ll bring this up next week, I know I want to talk to different council members, including Council President [Lisa] Rasmussen, who I have talked with. We’ll wait and see, because I do plan on speaking before the county board tomorrow night to make my case.”
Mielke is looking for about $650,000 from the county for construction and public transit. That’s the same amount that a Wausau wheel tax would generate. Though he would be frustrated if the county board refused to use some of their new tax money to contribute to Wausau, he’s been more frustrated by the lack of support at the state level.
“Since 2011, the City of Wausau, in shared revenue revenue resources that we’ve paid in that we’ve lost, it’s about $1,305,113, and it’s gone. I guess since we’re paying it in, one of these days I’d like to get some money back.”
Tonight’s county board meeting takes place at 7 p.m. at the Marathon County Courthouse.
