Board faces tax choice
Abele asks it to approve $60 wheel tax by end of October
Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele is asking the County Board to take the unusual step this month of approving a $60 county wheel tax, a major revenue source in Abele’s recommended 2018 budget, before the board adopts a final budget for next year.
The proposed $60 vehicle registration fee — up $30 from this year — would generate $30.6 million in 2018, according to budget documents.
Money from the wheel tax is spent on maintaining county highways and parkways, as well as costs of operating the Milwaukee County Transit System.
The $30 boost in the fee is expected to yield more than $14.6 million next year and that extra cash already is included in Abele’s recommended budget.
“To reach this full $14.6 million, however, we would need to receive the $60 fee for 11 months in 2018,” county Administration Director Teig Whaley-Smith said Monday in an email sent to the 18 supervisors on the board.
The only way to achieve that goal is for the board to act in October, according to Whaley-Smith. The reason is a necessary 90-day delay after approval before the state transportation department can begin collecting the higher fee for the county.
If the board waits until November to embrace the higher fee, the county would miss its revenue mark by $615,000, he said.
County Board Chairman Theodore Lipscomb Sr. on Monday criticized the Abele administration for presenting a budget based on two assumptions: that the board will approve a $60 wheel tax and do it in October so as not to lose $615,000 in revenue.
“The budget is out of balance unless the board acts first on the wheel
tax,” Lipscomb said Monday at a special board meeting with Whaley-Smith to review the recommended budget.
Whaley-Smith agreed.
Supervisor Deanna Alexander asked Whaley-Smith if Abele has recommendations for $615,000 in budget cuts if the board respected the annual budget-setting process and did not act on the wheel tax increase proposal until November. The board is scheduled to take final action on the 2018 budget on Nov. 6 at the courthouse.
“There is no recommended Plan B,” Whaley-Smith said.
Persuading the board to approve the higher $60 wheel tax in any month would appear to be a tough sell for Abele.
The county’s current $30 vehicle registration fee is on top of the state’s $75 fee. City of Milwaukee vehicle owners pay a separate $20 wheel tax.
Both Lipscomb and Supervisor Michael Mayo Sr., chairman of the board’s transportation committee, have stated their opposition to the higher county fee. Lipscomb last week reminded Abele that 72% of county voters in an April referendum opposed a total $60 wheel tax.
Supervisor Steve Taylor said Monday that the level of opposition was even larger — more than 80% — among voters in his district. He represents Franklin, Oak Creek and Hales Corners.
Taylor does not expect the board to accept a $60 wheel tax. In return, supervisors will have to fill a hole in the budget through cuts in services, he said.
“Abele’s handed the County Board a budget, and now we have to fill a $14.6 million hole unless we keep the whole $60 wheel tax,” Taylor said.
“This is not a balanced budget,” Mayo said.
Abele had been scheduled to review his recommended $1.16 billion budget with the County Board at a meeting beginning at 4 p.m. Monday in the courthouse. A family member’s health emergency early Monday prevented him from attending the meeting.
Whaley-Smith stepped in for Abele Monday.
One major capital project in the budget is the proposed construction of a new international terminal at Mitchell International Airport at a total cost of $50 million.
More than $25 million included in the 2018 budget will pay costs of demolishing the unused Concourse E at Mitchell and initial construction on foundations and building frame for the new international terminal.
The county budgeted $4.6 million this year on the building’s design and engineering plans.
Construction will be completed in 2019 at an estimated cost of $20.1 million. No property tax dollars are spent on airport construction or daily operations.
In addition to a $30 increase in the county wheel tax, Abele’s recommended 2018 budget includes an increase in the property tax levy.
A property tax levy of $294 million for 2018 is up 1%, or more than $2.9 million, from this year. The levy increase comes from the net value of new construction in the county, so most homeowners will not pay more property taxes to the county for 2018, budget officials said.