March 16, 2018 – West Bend, WI – West Bend District 5 alderman Rich Kasten spoke during this week’s meeting of Common Sense Citizens of Washington County about the upcoming advisory referendum.
-Advisory referendum and road maintenance. How to finance road repair and road fixes.
-There have been a lot of complaints about roads on social media and phone calls.
-There are mixed messages on how good the roads are.
-People are concerned about property taxes.
-Best way to determine how to address problem is with an advisory referendum.
-Remember to vote on all four Yes / No questions.
-Truly a fact-finding mission.
-First two questions talk about increasing property taxes.
-Question 3 deals with a wheel tax – this tax can only be used for transportation and road-type issues.
-No. 4 is to ask Washington County to share 25% of their sales tax with all municipalities. Washington County supervisors have so far said – that will not happen.
-Three major road fixes include Seventh Avenue, 18th Avenue from Vogt to Paradise Drive and Main Street south of Humar and each project is $5 million.
-$20 wheel tax would be added on at the state level.
-How do you sunset the tax – we don’t have a true sunset.
-Anticipated revenue on vehicle registration fee is $600,000 a year applied to borrowing
-IS the city unaffected by revenue limits. Correct – one thing we’ve worked hard on is getting to a low debt level.
-Total debt now at city of West Bend is $50 million – down from $80 million six or seven years ago.