The Outagamie County Board will vote on next year’s budget tonight.
One point of contention with County Executive Tom Nelson is how to spend about $20 million in revenue from the new half-cent sales tax. Nelson wants to give half of the money to communities and school districts, and use the rest to lower property taxes.
County Board Chair Jeff Nooyen believes that would be a mistake because it does nothing to reduce debt. He says right now, the county has about $55 million in debt, and $10 million in interest payments.
Nooyen supports a plan from the county board’s finance committee to use $7 million to lower the county’s debt, and send $5 million to communities and school districts. About $5 million would go toward property tax relief, and $3 million would be spent on capital projects.
Nooyen also isn’t concerned about a possible lawsuit over the sales tax. The conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty claims it’s not legal for the county to use that revenue on capital improvement projects. The firm thinks all of it should go toward lowering property taxes.
Nooyen believes they’re well within the law, based on a ruling by former state Attorney General Jim Doyle about two decades ago.
WILL filed a similar lawsuit against Brown County over its half-cent sales tax. That’s still pending.
