By Nick Wood
Acting Editor
BROWN COUNTY –– What began more than 20 years ago as a voter-approved mechanism to publicly fund renovations at Lambeau Field found new life last week as the Brown County Board voted to extend the county’s half-percent sales tax into the foreseeable future.
The board voted 22-4 in favor of extending the tax until the county’s debt is paid off, expected in 2037.
Supervisors Devin Coenen, Patrick Evans, Dave Landwehr and Andy Nicholson voted against.
To the extent out-of-county visitors spend their money here, the sales tax offsets county property taxes.
Consider a typical Packers home game with a roughly $15 million economic impact.
If all those dollars were spent by out-of-towners, it would add about $75,000 to the county’s coffers and offset resident property taxes by the same.
For county residents who spend their money here, however, the sales tax adds to their overall tax burden.
On a $2 cup of coffee, the county tax costs a penny; on a $100 night on the town, it adds 50 cents; and on a $40,000 car it adds $200.
The tax does not apply to real estate purchases.
Since the board revived the tax in 2017, it has generated more than $130 million in revenue for the county, including about $21 million in 2018, about $30 million each in 2019 and 2020, and about $33 million in 2021.
As of July this year, the tax has generated about $20 million.
The current attitude of the board toward the stickiness of the sales tax was illustrated by two failed amendments.
A proposal by Sup. Evans to end the sales tax in six years was soundly defeated, while a proposal by Sup. Ron Antonneau to make the sales tax permanent was defeated by a smaller margin.
The original county sales tax was approved by voters in a 2000 referendum to fund renovations at Lambeau Field.
That tax was retired in 2015 after raising more than $300 million.
The current county sales tax was revived in 2017 and enacted in 2018 to fund $150 million in infrastructure projects.
Included were the county’s portion of funding for high profile initiatives such as the Resch Expo, the county jail and mental health facilities and the STEM innovation center at UWGB, as well as lower profile improvements including roads, parks, libraries, museums, the fairgrounds and public safety projects.
The current tax was scheduled to sunset at the end of next year.
Around the state, 68 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties have a half-percent sales tax.
In May, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled 5-2 that county sales taxes do not have to be used to directly reduce property taxes.
The Brown County Taxpayers Alliance was a lead plaintiff that argued proceeds from the county sales tax could not be used for capital improvement projects like the Resch Expo.
The alliance also opposed the extension of the county’s current sales tax.