UPDATE: The Sheboygan County board has approved the half percent sales tax on a vote of 18-7.
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SHEBOYGAN, Wis. (WHBL) - The Sheboygan County board is set to vote tonight on a proposed half-percent sales tax.
County staff say they need the sales tax in order to pay for maintaining the county's roads. The tax is estimated to bring in around $9 million a year for the county which would be able to pay for around 30 miles of repairs each year. Sheboygan County administrator Adam Payne says the county really does need a new source of revenue because state shared revenues have been drying up, and there's no easy way to raise regular property taxes. "Unless we go to county wide referendum, we couldn't raise property taxes."
A vote last week at a combined meeting of the finance and executive committees modified the sales tax proposal to require the county to do a full study of the tax every seven years in order to determine if the tax is still needed.
Opponents of the proposal call it an unneeded increase of the tax burdens of county residents, and that the county can pay for the roads with other methods like more bonding or using the general fund.
Tonight's meeting gets underway at 6pm.