Abele to request $60 ‘wheel tax,’ parking fees

When it comes to getting a $60 wheel tax, Milwaukee County Executive Chris Able’s motto appears to be try and try again.

In his 2018 budget request, Abele will propose a $60 annual registration fee as a dedicated source of funding for transit and road and bridge repairs. Abele’s office said Friday that the proposal would raise $14.7 million.

A similar request by Abele in the 2017 budget was met with skepticism by the County Board.

The board slashed the wheel tax request in half to $30 and also placed an advisory referendum on the spring 2017 ballot, asking voters if they supported a $60 fee. By an overwhelming majority, voters said “no.” Abele’s budget request — due by Oct. 1 — also calls for allowing the Parks Department “to have paid parking in different areas around the county.” The fees would generate $1.6 million in revenue next year for the department.

County Board Chairman Theodore Lipscomb Sr. said in a statement he opposed the wheel tax and pointed to the rejection of the advisory referendum.

“After 72% of voters rejected Abele’s $60 wheel tax this spring, he must be tone deaf to reintroduce what remains a bad idea,” Lipscomb said.

Supervisor Michael Mayo Sr. declared Abele’s wheel tax proposal, “Dead on arrival.”

Mayo added county residents opposed a fee for parking along the lakefront when the idea was previously floated and he urged Abele to work with the County Board to find additional revenue.

“Let’s not nickel and dime people and say, ‘You can only park here for a certain amount of time,’ “Mayo said.

Timothy R. Sheehy, president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, said his organization was supportive of the Abele’s wheel tax proposal.

“Nobody likes to see taxes or fees go up,” he said. “Given the pension challenges the county has and the historical decline in shared revenue, I just think it’s important that the county has additional fiscal tools.”

Abele will likely have an uphill battle to get his measures approved.

In March, vehicle owners in the county started to pay the $30 vehicle registration fee. That was on top of the $75 fee collected by the state. City of Milwaukee vehicle owners also pay a $20 city wheel tax.

In a statement, Abele’s office sought to make the case for the increases, claiming the decision was “informed both by independent fiscal analysis and by the feedback of county residents who participated in the Engage MKE initiative.” That initiative gave county residents the opportunity to design their own county budget.

“User fee increases, which may be appropriate in some circumstances, simply don’t generate enough revenue to make a significant impact in sustaining our bottom line,” the statement said. “That is why the county executive is proposing a $30 increase to the vehicle registration fee. This is the only new revenue stream legally available to the county that can prevent drastic service cuts and allow us to make investments in areas that cannot be ignored, like the opioid epidemic.”

In raising the issue for a parking fee in and around the parks, Abele’s office said that he would seek to “address past concerns raised by community members.”

Abele called for creating a task force “comprised of county and community stakeholders to determine the best path forward.”

“This task force will analyze options, to include free days and varied prices based on location and time, at locations around the lakefront and other county parks and parkways,” the statement said. “The task force will also consider racial and socioeconomic equity, as well as access issues for people of all abilities.”