Dunn County Board approves $20 wheel tax
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — The Dunn County Board has approved a $20 annual vehicle registration fee for cars and pickup trucks that becomes effective January 1.
The ordinance for establishing an annual county vehicle registration fee, which was approved on a second reading of the ordinance at the county board’s November 12 meeting, passed on a vote of 24 “yes” to two “no.”
Three county board supervisors were absent from the meeting: Teresa Lyall, Dale Harschlip and Tim Lienau.
The wheel tax applies to a motor vehicle — an automobile or a truck registered in Wisconsin at a gross weight of no more than 8,000 pounds that is customarily kept in Dunn County.
The vehicle registration fee, which is expected to raise about $750,000 annually, was recommended by the highway committee to generate additional revenue to maintain the county highway system, said Gary Seipel, county board supervisor from Eau Galle and chair of the highway committee.
The proposed ordinance was amended with a “sunset” provision at the October county board meeting that states the wheel tax will expire December 31, 2022, unless the county acts to extend the term of the vehicle registration fee or removes the sunset provision.
The amended ordinance also includes the provision that the highway committee will review the vehicle registration fee no later than July 31, 2022, to make a recommendation to the county board about extending or removing the sunset provision or whether the vehicle registration fee should be adjusted.
State law requires that vehicle registration fees adopted by counties must be used for transportation purposes.
The county highway department has experienced a “significant reduction” in state transportation aids over the past several years, and the county cannot keep up with highway maintenance and reconstruction, Seipel said.
In addition, the winter maintenance budget has experienced deficits in recent years, and 2019 has already been challenging, he said.
The state-imposed tax levy limits as well as increases in the costs of materials — the cost of asphalt has increased by 50 percent over the past five years — and increases in the price of salt and equipment also have presented difficulties for the county’s highway budget, Seipel said.
Winter
Earlier in the meeting, during his annual report on the highway department, Jon Sworski, director of public works, told the county board that the winter maintenance budget already has a $1 million deficit in 2019 because of the snowstorms in February, March and April of this year.
The deficit was offset by a reduction in county highway construction this summer by $1.7 million, Sworski said.
Of that amount, $1 million went toward covering the winter maintenance deficit, and $700,000 was set aside with the hope it would “take use through the end of 2019,” he said.
This year, 5.43 miles of county highways were reconstructed, which brings the county construction cycle to just over 78 years, Sworski said.
In other words, with the money that is available, Dunn County will be able to reconstruct each of the county highways once every 78 years.
James Anderson, county board supervisor from Menomonie, asked Sworski what he would prefer for a reconstruction cycle.
“One-third of that,” Sworski said — meaning he would prefer the county’s highways were reconstructed once every 25 years.
Based on a 20-month weather pattern, Sworski said he anticipates the 2019-2020 winter “will be just as bad” as last winter.
Options
To cover the deficit in the highway budget and the increased costs of materials and equipment, Dunn County has three options: borrow money, reduce the services available to county residents and reduce the road maintenance, or establish a vehicle registration fee, Seipel said.
The highway committee and executive committee both have recommended adopting the vehicle registration fee, he said.
Larry Bjork, county board supervisor from Menomonie, said he would not be supporting the vehicle registration fee because the state is “failing to support counties.”
The county works hard “to trim expenses in all departments,” he said, but the state is not following through to help the counties.
“We have a state problem that we are trying to solve in Dunn County,” Larry Bjork said.
The Wisconsin Counties Association should demand more funding, he said.
If Dunn County approves a wheel tax, why would the state think Dunn County is serious in needing more transportation funds? Larry Bjork asked.
At the October meeting, Larry Bjork said he wanted the vote taken on the vehicle registration fee to be by roll call because the residents of Dunn County deserve to know how their county board representatives voted.
Voting in favor of the motion were John Calabrese (Menomonie); Elton Christopherson (Elk Mound); Vaughn Hedlund (Boyceville); Brian Johnson (Colfax); Sarah Kennedy (Menomonie); Mike Kneer (Menomonie); Donald Kuether (Menomonie); Charles Maves (Boyceville); Kelly McCullough (Menomonie); Randy Prochnow (Menomonie); Tom Quinn (Downing); Michael Rogers (Menomonie); Gary Seipel (Eau Galle); Mary Solberg (Menomonie); Gary Stene (Colfax); Sheila Stori (Menomonie); Robin Sweeny (Menomonie); James Tripp (Menomonie); Jim Zons (Colfax); James Anderson (Menomonie); Gary Bjork (Colfax); and David Bartlett (Boyceville).
Voting against the motion were Larry Bjork (Menomonie); and Ronald Score (Boyceville).