APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) – Tuesday is decision day in Appleton.
The Outagamie County Board will vote on County Executive Tom Nelson’s veto of the sales tax increase that the supervisors voted in favor of at their last meeting.
“In my eight years, this is the one big issue where there has been a lot of disagreement.”
24 votes are needed to override the veto and once again approve the sales tax.
County Board Chairman Jeff Nooyen is in favor of the tax increase and says he feels there is enough support form the board to override.
“We had 28 people vote in favor of this and there were four people missing from the meeting.”
That does not mean that all 28 will once again vote in favor once again. Since deciding to veto the measure, Tom Nelson has been talking with supervisors to get them to change their vote. It is not for sure that enough will, but for Nelson, he says it’s not all about coming out victorious.
“I don’t look at it as a win-loss proposition.”
He says he also is not worried that his decision to veto the tax increase will impact his future election support. He says he feels enough people will be affected in a negative way if it goes through, and that is what he is trying to stop.
“It will most affect people on fixed incomes, those people living paycheck to paycheck, small businesses and young adults drowning in debt.”
Nooyen says if the veto is sustained by the County Board, there will be negative consequences.
“It is just going to be more bad budgeting, more trying to balance the budget on the backs of employees and residents and more indebtedness.”
Nooyen says he understands that people have expressed their dissatisfaction with the sales tax increase to County Executive Nelson, but says he feels that more people spoke out against pig wrestling in Stephensville back in 2014.
If the veto is overridden, an additional half percent will be tacked onto purchases that contain a sales tax.
