Common Council Holds Wheel Tax Resolution For 2 Weeks – Will Take Resolution Back Up At June 19 Meeting

The Common Council met 06/05/2024. One of the items they separated out for an individual vote was the resolution to increase the wheel tax by $10, bringing it from $20 a year per vehicle to $30 a year.

The Finance Committee had recommended the resolution for denial by a vote of 3-2; however, at that committee meeting 6 alderpersons had expressed support of the resolution, only 2 shy of a majority of the full Council.

Alderperson Brad Firkus (District 3) is one of the alderpersons that co-signed this resolution and also one of the two Finance Committee members who voted in favor of it. He was unable to attend the Common Council meeting, and told Council President Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) that at the next Council meeting he would ask to have this item reconsidered. Rather than hold a protracted discussion and vote on the item this week when the Council would very likely have to hold that entire discussion again in two weeks at the next Common Council meeting, the Council voted 10-3 to hold the resolution until the 06/19/2024 Common Council meeting.

I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:

Two members of the public spoke on the resolution during the public participation portion of the meeting. Walter Blank of Concerned Appleton Taxpayers and his wife Deb both expressed opposition to increasing the wheel tax.

Deb argued that residents already pay for road maintenance and construction in a number of ways including car registration, drivers license fees, gas taxes, county taxes, and sales taxes. Of the 24 largest cities in Wisconsin, 15 do not have a wheel tax. When she called and asked them how they were able to cover their roads without a wheel tax, she was told things like these communities prioritized roads in their budgets, they operate within their budget, they assessed developers for roads, and a wheel tax was a non-starter due to the surrounding communities not having any. She pointed out that, around Appleton, neighboring municipalities that do not have a wheel tax includes Little Chute, Kimberly, Greenville, Combined Locks, Fox Crossing, Town of Harrison, Neenah, and Menasha. [I would be curious how many of these communities both do not have a wheel tax and also do not levy special assessments.]

She was concerned that Appleton residents were being assessed taxes over and above the allowed levy in order to service the city’s debt. Per Deb, right now a homeowner with a home valued at $250,000 is paying $434 a year over the allowed levy to service Appleton’s debt.

She said that $1.2 million of urban forestry dollars were moved from the general fund to stormwater fees. She suggested that this money could be put toward roads instead and would be double the amount estimated to be brought in by a $10 increase to the wheel tax.

She thought that the “wheel tax is an unfair tax, a regressive tax, hitting hardest the hardest hit,” and hoped that the city would look for a win/win solution that did not involve increased it.

Walter argued that increasing the wheel tax would be “feeding the bear,” and would lead to further increases down the road. He said that the residents were paying taxes on top of the levy limit and suggested “If even a part of the $13.5 million that Appleton currently pays to general obligation debt service could be diverted from the creditor to the general fund, you wouldn’t need any wheel tax.” He said that Appleton Concerned Taxpayers as well as two other tax payer organizations were working with state representatives to put forward a bill to offer incentives to municipalities to fund their road maintenance. He asked the city to hold off on increasing the wheel tax for a couple years to allow time for this legislative process to move forward.

Walter has also laid out his thoughts on increasing the wheel tax in an article posted online.

Prior to the Council voting to hold the item for two weeks, Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) voiced her opposition to the increase. She viewed the resolution as akin to somebody coming to their bosses and asking for a raise because they couldn’t manage their family budget. She thought that the city should look at cutting something rather than asking residents for more money. “We have to do our job first as aldermen, and that is manage our budget first not ask our boss for more money because inflation has come down upon us.”

At that point in the conversation, Alderperson Van Zeeland made a motion to hold the item for two weeks in light of Alderperson Firkus’ stated intention to ask for it to be reconsidered. Alderperson Vered Meltzer (District 2) thought that if the vote went Alderperson Firkus’ way he would not ask for the item to be reconsidered and so argued for holding a vote on it that evening.

Alderperson Nate Wolff (District 12) wanted to at least hold some discussion so that the Council could receive feedback from Director of Public Works Danielle Block on the matter because she had resigned effective June 7 and would not be at the 06/19/2024 Common Council meeting.

The Council ended up voting 10-3 to approve the motion to hold the item for two weeks.

View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1195549&GUID=622A4F4C-DDAD-4A7E-B001-F5356C5417F7