March 25, 2023 – Washington Co., WI – On the April 4 Spring ballot, there is a question on over 85% of all of the ballots County-wide asking if residents support the sharing of the county sales tax.
To understand the reason for this question, let me explain the situation.
Currently, nearly every purchase you make in the State of Wisconsin will have a Sales Tax added to it.
This is 5%. Under state law, Counties can then impose an additional sales tax on top of that original 5%. In Washington County, we have an additional .5% making our total sales tax 5.5%. That .5% tax is collected from all of the businesses by the state and given to the County.
The County can then use this money for any reason including reducing property taxes, economic development initiatives, particular projects or anything else that they chose. Washington County has collected this tax starting in 2000 and received $6.5M that year.
Since that time, the amount of taxes collected has grown on average of 3.89% annually to where it is now at over $15M per year.
Meanwhile, local municipalities have not had a source of revenue with this level of growth on average even though all of sales happens within and because of the work of towns, Villages and Cities.
With all of Washington County local municipalities struggling to keep up with costs to maintain basic needs of safe roads, police and fire protection and others, all of these participating communities have placed this same question on the April 4 ballot in a non- binding referendum asking if residents believe that 20% of this sales tax (or .1% of the total .5%) that the County receives should be shared with the municipalities to help them improve roads and public safety.
Your City Council unanimously approved this question on our local ballot because they see the surplus that the County has which they can spend any way they chose, yet the City of Hartford, as well as all others, struggles to keep up with deteriorating roads and needs for more EMS and Police services.
If the residents of Washington County agree with this concept of putting sales tax, which has grown beyond the Counties original needs, into the hands of local municipalities to address your basic needs, then the issue will be brought before the County Board for a final decision.
Steve Volkert is the City Administrator in Hartford, WI
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