The Common Council met 09/04/2024. One of the items they took up was a resolution to require changes to wheel tax fees be implemented only upon approval by 2/3 of the Common Council. This resolution was recommended for approval by the Finance Committee by a vote of 3-1, but during the 09/04 Common Council meeting, the Council voted the resolution down by a vote of 3-10.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
The Common Council spent only around 10 minutes discussing the item.
Alderperson Chris Croatt (District 14), the author of the resolution explained that financial and budgetary decisions often had a higher vote threshold than other votes. Additionally, the recent vote to increase the wheel tax by 50% had been very close, passing by a vote of 8-7, but based on feedback he had received from Appleton residents, an overwhelming majority of the public had not supported the increase.
Alderperson Brad Firkus (District 2) had been the one member of the Finance Committee who had voted against the resolution and voted against it again at the Common Council meeting. He said that increasing or decreasing the required vote threshold for wheel-tax related fee increase could both be done by a simple majority of the Council. “The way I look at this item, it’s really low stakes, because a future Council can just come in and change this rule with a simple majority and take action on the wheel tax in the future with a simple majority.”
Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) thought the purpose of the resolution was to “to start a robust discussion about what are the important things to our constituents, and the wheel tax is very important.” She also said, “Any budgetary action that is taken in this council requires a two thirds vote, so I think that at the very least, wheel tax should apply to that as well.”
Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) asked City Attorney Christopher Behrens if some of the voting thresholds in place such as for budget amendments were set by state statute. He confirmed they were but also noted where there were no state set requirements the Council could set its own requirements.
Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) had voted against the resolution earlier this year that had increased the wheel tax. She thought that it had given constituents unrealistic expectations for the increased money raised and had not addressed underlying issues with funding for roads. However, she did not think that adding more bureaucracy (in this case requiring a 2/3 vote for future increases) was going to fix those problems, so she opposed changing the vote threshold requirement.
Alderperson Martyn Smith (District 4) did not think that discussions about raising the wheel tax would come up again in the next few years; however, he opposed the resolution, saying, “I’m constitutionally wary of resolutions that would tie our hands or set us down the path to doing other things like this, where we raise—we limit our ability to act on budget matters and things like paying for roads in various ways. And so that makes me negative on this, not because I have any plans or I think it’s going to come up anytime soon to raise the wheel tax, but just because I think it sets a bad precedent for dealing with these kinds of questions that we vote on in the course of ordinary matters.”
Alderperson Hartzheim reiterated her belief that it should be more difficult to pass wheel tax increases. “[W]e should be much more thoughtful about and require a higher bar for something that so directly affects our constituents.”
Alderperson Smith disagreed. “I really don’t think as a as a council we should handcuff ourselves. We see at other levels of government the same problems that come when we kind of we’re handcuffed and can’t just act in a majority way on issues that come before us. So again, it’s not that I think—it’s not the wheel tax itself, but it’s just kind of the precedent of this that that bothers me a little bit, and why I’ll vote against it.”
The Council voted 3-10 against the resolution.
[I think this illustrates on a very small scale the fact that once an entity gains power in a certain area, it will not willingly limit that power. Like a ratchet, it only goes one way unless somebody more powerful comes in and makes them give it up (as in the case of state statutes requiring certain vote thresholds on certain items).]
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1213515&GUID=A89C854A-411F-40B9-91C0-B1AA12937328
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