OUTAGAMIE COUNTY, WI (WTAQ) – New Year’s resolutions are now in full swing for the ’20s. In Outagamie County, officials are hoping to keep things trending up.
Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson is hoping for more growth and expansion in the 2020’s. That’s in a financial and infrastructural sense.
“We’ve been able to control the tax rate. We’ve had a declining tax rate the past two budgets. We have control of the levy, and we continue to provide services the best we can with the resources we have,” Nelson tells WTAQ News, “We continue to have a sterling financial track record here in Outagamie County. We’re one of a handful [of Wisconsin counties] to have a AAA bond rating.”
January 1st was also the first day of an increased sales tax in the county. It raised the tax to 5.5% – and is estimated to generate an annual $20 million. But Nelson hasn’t been particularly fond of the move, vetoing it twice before being overridden by the county board.
“There is no compelling reason to do this. And this is the kind of tax that is used only for the purpose of tax levy reduction, so it doesn’t provide a new service,” Nelson argues.
He believes it could soon be struck down by a pending lawsuit a resident filed over the newly implemented tax.
As 2020 launches a new decade, Nelson hopes supporting major industry in the county will help the economy take flight. There is a two-pronged approach to seeing an even bigger impact on the economy.
“Grow the paper industry. Find new ways that we can support the industry. It is not only a part of our community and culture, it’s a big part of our economy. And it is the future,” Nelson says.
He’s also pushing for continued and better support for one of the county’s largest contributors.
“Our airport contributes over $700 million in economic development every single year. It supports over 2,000 jobs either directly or indirectly,” Nelson says, “We now have 11 direct routes to cities throughout the country. And it seems like every month we have another announcement, another addition. It is one of the most important, significant pieces of economic real estate in Northeast Wisconsin and we are very proud of that.”
As Outagamie County works to maintain and improve financial stability and success – there are a number of major infrastructure projects on the horizon. That includes the expansion and build-out of Highway 15 in Greenville and Hortonville – along with Interstate 41 around Appleton and the Fox Cities, according to Nelson.
The end goal is for Interstate 41 to expand to six lanes between Appleton and De Pere, which is a 23-mile stretch that largely lies within Outagamie County boundaries. That would add one lane in each direction. Research shows the stretch of I-41 near Appleton and Grand Chute saw 890 crashes between August 2016 and September 2018.
Nelson also described other concerns that continue to arise when it comes to Interstate 41. Law enforcement from the county and local municipalities still respond to incidents along the major traffic artery.
“Does it really make sense to have the City of Appleton or Outagamie County responding to a road that is an interstate? That has drained a lot of resources not only here in the county, but in a lot of the underlying municipalities,” Nelson explains.
He hopes those patrols will be able to focus more on issues within their jurisdictions rather than the interstate in the near future.
Outagamie County is also aiming to improve in other areas, like the recycling and solid waste department.
“Recycling continues to get hit because commodity prices are going down,” Nelson explains, “That means that even though we continue to recycle more – and we’re well over 100,000 every single year – because we’re not getting a lot of return for selling those commodities, it has affected to an extent our operation. It’s something we have to look closely on.”
Health is also a key for those across the county – and Outagamie County officials signed off on assigning more funding towards an issue that much of the state and country continue to deal with.
“We’ve put additional resources among a number of county departments to address the opioid crisis. We have put more money in for child protective services. That is something I think is a huge concern, it’s not going away, and we’ve tried to – to the best of our abilities – keep up with that problem,” Nelson says.
