BROWN COUNTY, WI (WTAQ)- Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach has returned from Washington D.C. with a positive outlook for the counties future.
Streckenbach met with Wisconsin’s elected officials in Washington DC this week.
The County Executive brought up multiple economic development issues, including the funding for the proposed Southern Bridge.
Streckenbach said he received a good response from the elected officials, but said there are more players in process.
“We ultimately need the Federal Highway Administration to tell us where the Southern Bridge is going to be.”
The other question is how much will the federal government fund.
He said it was going to 80 percent funded by the federal government, but those numbers have changed.
“More of it will have to come from the local communities. So right now we are trying to come up with any type of grant or any type of funding that we can get from the Federal Highway Administration.”
Other topics discussed included Financial support to continue to increase the Customs and Border Protection facility at Green Bay-Austin Straubel International Airport.
“We talked about things are essential for Brown County to be successful and to make sure that the support from our legislation is still there.”
He says there is still a lot of questions that remain when it comes to the funding of the proposed Southern Bridge. No formal timetable has been established for the project, which would require a bridge to be built across the Fox River south of De Pere.
In other County news, Streckenbach announced this week that they asked for a Declaratory Judgement to speed up the process of a legal battle that the county is facing surrounding the county sales tax.
“We are looking for some clarity so we can prepare our 2019 budget.”
Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty filed the lawsuit in December of last year, stating a 0.5 percent sales and use tax was violates state law.
Streckenbach says the lawsuit should not hold up the plans for the Brown County Arena replacement project.
He says those plans are still in line to move forward.
Streckenbach says they need to finalize this lawsuit so they can move forward with the 2019 budget.
The county also put a moratorium on all new debt in place until they are able to get more certainty. He says they need to start putting the 2019 budget together, and can’t afford to wait and waste taxpayer’s money.
