APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) – The future of a sale tax increase in Outagamie County is back in the hands of the County Board.
County Executive Tom Nelson vetoed the sales tax increase, sending it back to vote.
“I am not surprised that he vetoed it given the political theater that he has tried to turn this into.”
County Board Chairman Jeff Nooyen says he is disappointed by the veto decision.
“For him to veto it, I think he kind of thumbs his nose at the County Board saying I know better than you do. It would be different if the vote was 18-15, but it wasn’t.”
He says if everyone holds to what they voted the first time, they will have enough to override the veto and end the debate.
“We need 24 votes to override his veto and I am confident that we have that because we had 28 people vote in favor of this and there were four people missing from the meeting.”
Nooyen says he feels that a majority of residents will be impacted in a positive way in the future with the sales tax increase. He says he feels that Nelson’s support group is not a true majority.
“There are 186 thousand residents in Outagamie County, so 50 or 60 is not a significant number.”
Nooyen says he had lots of people comment that they don’t want it.
“I have had several comments from business people, neighbors, people at church saying this is great and thank you for doing this.”
He says there was plenty of opportunity for public input and the County Board has heard what they need to hear. He says the claim that there was not any time for the residents to give input is not true.
“This was brought to Mr. Nelson’s attention over a year-and-half ago. He is the one that wanted to keep it out of the public eye until after his Spring Election,” Nooyen said. This has gotten more discussion than most items do at the County Board level.”
The County Board will take up the vote on the veto on June 11.
“If his veto is sustained, we are going to be in a world of hurt.”
