Late Night RTA Shenanigans Will Cost Milwaukee County Taxpayers Dearly
New Fiscal Bureau Analysis Puts Annual Per-Household Cost at $228.76
We are just now learning about the real costs of last week’s late-night activities of the Joint Finance Committee’s Democratic majority.
Last week, when attempting to deal with the creation of several Regional Transit Authorities, the Committee engaged in a dead-of-night scramble to raise taxes and fees to pay for trains, buses and a myriad of other, non transportation-related items. Among their actions, they passed, on a 11-5 vote, a provision to allow the imposition of a new one percent sales tax for Milwaukee County.
Providing that your second job (or worrying over the current economy) wasn’t keeping you up past 2 am last Friday morning, while you were sleeping the Committee created a new Milwaukee County-only Regional Transit Authority.
This proposal, including discussions regarding its revenue sources and governance structure, was cobbled together behind closed doors and did not receive the traditional public scrutiny afforded to proposals of this magnitude.
As the Legislature’s Fiscal Bureau concluded, in an analysis of the proposal conducted AFTER the vote was taken, the new Milwaukee County Tax will cost Milwaukee County Homeowners an average of $228.76 per year.
Worrying about what new tax hike is next is enough to keep you up a night!
It remains uncertain how Milwaukee County legislators who are not on the Joint Finance Committee will vote on the final budget in June if that new tax remains as a part of the overall package.