KEWAUNEE COUNTY, WI (WTAQ) – Kewaunee County is considering a new half-percent sales tax.
In front of a packed room at the Kewaunee County Fair Grounds Monday night, residents heard about a proposal for a new half-percent sales tax.
Lee Luft, the Chair of the County Finance Committee.
“We’re proposing a half-percent sales tax so what that means is on a 100 dollar purchase you’re looking at 50 cents”
Luft says since the Dominion Power Plant shut down in 2013, the county has lost about seven percent of its annual budget.
“The revenue lost from the power plant was $740,000”
He added the county has already made cuts in departments and raised the health care costs for county workers, but he says it hasn’t made up for the deficit.
“We’ve looked at every department budget and made cuts in literally every budget, there is not a lot more we can do without starting to impact that services that people need and expect from a county”
However, not everyone on the finance committee agrees with adding a sales tax. Like Chris Rasmussen
“I’m against asking the tax payers to open their wallets before we do the due diligence on the finance committee and as a board to look at expenses. Yes, we lost a significant revenue over the past few years with Dominion, but the 2016 budget has been balanced without that money.”
Rasmussen says before asking tax payers for money the county needs to take another look at its spending costs.
“The issue is we need to take a look at our budget and look at where we are spending money rather than seeing if we can get more money from the tax payers”
Many people, like Peter Beane, at Monday’s meeting said they’re concerned a sales tax would drive people away from county businesses.
“We’re in restaurant recession, people are not knocking any doors down and then they have to start charging this. We’re looking to get people to Kewaunee county and I think its shooting us in the foot on this”
The Kewaunee County Board is expected to take up the issue at its September 20th meeting.
