Manitowoc Mayor Justin Nickels
Last week, Governor Tony Evers proposed a tax program that he said would help local municipalities.
As a part of the program, if approved by voters in a referendum, cities would raise the sales tax to pay for local services such as police and fire protection and road repairs.
While on the Jim and Rick Show last week Manitowoc Mayor Justin Nickels says that the system for funding local governments is “broken.”
“In Wisconsin…the only funding source that we have in terms of taxes are property taxes,” he explained. “We do not have a sales tax. Counties can levy a sales tax. We cannot and we do not.”
He also noted that cities do not have an income tax much like the federal and state governments do.
Mayor Nickels also pointed to the fact that shared revenue for local governments has been cut three times since 2004, leaving cities and villages struggling.
he said. “You never really hear of cities having surpluses, because we don’t.”
Nickels broke down what the governor’s proposal would actually consist of.
“1% of the sales tax goes to communities, cities, municipalities, and I believe Representative [Robin] Voss and [Senator Devin] LeMahieu are also supportive of that concept,” Nickels revealed. “That would be huge because then our economic growth that we see in the city will have dividends. It will pay off.”
To reiterate, that money could only be used for police and fire, and road repairs.
Nickels said that with the income the city gets from property tax, they are only able to pay for police and fire.
He revealed that the income from property tax is roughly $15 to $18 million, which is pretty close to how much it costs to pay those civil servants.
Click here to see the full release on the tax from the Governor’s office.
