Washington Co., WI – On April 4, Washington County electors made their voices heard loud and clear at the Spring Election. An overwhelming 76.76% (32,219) voters across 15 municipalities voted in favor of the advisory referendum for Washington County to share 20% of its annual sales tax revenues to fund local roads.
As the Washington County Board prepares its next biennial budget, the Mid-Moraine Municipal Association formally requests County Executive Josh Schoemann and the 21 Washington County Board Supervisors to share 20% of the sales tax revenues annually and equitably with the cities, villages, and towns based on population and equalized values.
If the County Board acts in accordance with this request—a request supported by 76.76% of their constituents—based on 2022 data, $3,243,442.52 would be infused equitably across local municipalities.
Sharing 20% of the sales tax does not need to result in a tax increase for Washington County residents. In fact, it should alleviate residents from bearing the cost of local road improvements solely through their property taxes.
Washington County has experienced sustainable, year-over-year growth in sales tax revenues since 2010. The County is projecting $17,240,000 from 2023 sales tax revenues.
This is a 6% increase over 2022. This growth is on trend with the $13.3M received in 2020, $15M in 2021, and $16.2M in 2022. The gap created by sharing 20% with local municipalities will be closed in just over two years.
At the same time, Washington County received a lump sum of $26.4M in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to spend by 2026. $9.23M of ARPA funding remains unallocated and could assist to cover one-time needs for the two years until the County is made whole and able to resume its sales tax revenue growth alongside the municipalities.
There is absolutely no need for a tax rate increase on residents. This is not robbing Peter to pay Paul. Sharing the sales tax back to the municipalities that is generated by our local business community is the right thing to do for every town, village and city in Washington County.
Washington County constituents have spoken. It is time for the County Board Supervisors to act on their behalf. Please urge your County Supervisor to support sharing the sales tax—do it for your crumbling roads.
Michael Miller
Executive Director
Mid-Moraine Municipal Association
Please also note:
COMMENTING
WASHINGTONCOUNTYINSIDER.COM (WCI) COMMENTING RULES OF ETIQUETTE: While open and honest debate is encouraged here, Washington County Insider asks that you comply with the following rules for posting. Those who do not comply will have their posts removed and may result in being banned from commenting.
In an effort to provide a great experience and be welcoming to everyone, Washington County Insider will not publish comments and reserves the right to remove posts on social media/Facebook that doesn’t adhere to the guidelines below.
-
- Are considered likely to provoke, attack or offend others. This is known as “trolling.” Trollers know when they are trolling, and so do we. *See the definition of “troll” below. If you notice a few consistent blog trolls disappear, you’ll know why.
- Are sexually explicit, abusive, or otherwise objectionable.
- Contains inappropriate or vulgar language that is likely to offend.
-
- Break the law or condone or encourage unlawful activity. This includes breach of copyright, defamation, and contempt of court.
- Advertise products or services for profit.
- Are seen impersonating someone else.
-
- Repeatedly post the same or similar messages (‘spam’)
- Include personal contact details such as telephone numbers and postal or email addresses.
- Include a link or photo that has not been approved by the editor prior to posting.
- Are considered campaigning. See also “trolling” above.
- Are unrelated to the topic.
NOTES:
-
- Just because your comment doesn’t show up right away doesn’t mean you’re being censored. When you post a comment it must first go through our filtering software. If it fails, your comment goes into a queue for manual approval.
- Just because a comment or advertisement is on the site, doesn’t mean WCI endorses it.
- The above rules are not intended to stop criticism or dissenters, but rather to stop those who are incapable of participating in a civilized manner.
*Trolling: a troll is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory,[1] extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the intent of provoking readers into an emotional response[2] or of otherwise disrupting normal, on-topic discussion,[3] often for the troll’s amusement. (source: Wikipedia)