JFC Votes for RTA In Dead of Night
Nice.
The Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee early Friday approved creating a board that could impose a sales tax of up to 1% in Milwaukee County to pay for transit, parks and emergency medical services.
The committee also voted to create a commuter rail authority in Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha counties, which would be funded with a $16 fee on car rentals.
The vote for a sales tax came at 2 a.m., after the Democrat-controlled committee was bogged down for 12 hours in closed-door meetings. The budget meeting was to begin at 11 a.m. Thursday but did not start until 11 p.m.; the motions on transit weren’t unveiled until after 1 a.m. Friday.
The sales tax could rise as high as 6.6% in Milwaukee County under the plan adopted by the committee. The full Legislature and Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle would have to sign off on that proposal.
More taxes. More spending. More pain for Wisconsin’s citizens.
I’ll speak personally about the rental car tax. I rent a car in Wisconsin about once every month or two to drive to the Twin Cities. It’s cheaper than driving my own car and expensing the mileage. I’ll have to rethink that if it will cost another $16. There’s a very real possibility that our local rental car company is going to miss out on my business because of this.
This is good.
The sales tax plan passed 11-5, with Sen. John Lehman (D-Racine) joining the committee’s four Republicans to vote against the proposal. Lehman re-joined the rest of the committee’s Democrats in voting for KRM.
Good for the Republicans and Lehman for voting against this.
So what you’re saying is that if I’m buying a flat screen TV I need to go to the Best Buy on highway 60 in Ozaukee County versus the Best Buy at Northridge to save myself $10 to $15 bucks of sales tax.
The question is whether the outlying counties will then follow suit or if the consumers/voters can hold firm to keep the tax lower and attract more commerce away from Milwaukee County.
Owen, hope you can keep the Washington County board from jacking yours up 1% to pay for a new monorail at the County Fair Park.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 01, 2009 at 0733 hrs
Might be a good time to open a car rental franchise in Germantown (Washington Co.) or Brookfield/Meno Falls (Waukesha Co.). I know a lot of car rental business feeds off of airports, but then again, people rent cars for other things (business, temporary replacement vehicle, vacations, etc).
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 01, 2009 at 0811 hrs
You bring up a good point. I assume that my car rental place in West Bend will have to levy the fee because they are basically a satellite site of the airport, but maybe not. Maybe this won’t affect me personally at all, but it sure hammers the facilities in the RTA zone.
Another thought, a large amount of the car rental business comes from people who are in car accidents. This is often paid or or subsidized by the car insurance companies. I wonder if it will result in a bump in insurance rates for residents. If the insurance company has a cap on daily charges, then it just means more out of pocket for the car owner after an accident.
Posted by Owen on May 01, 2009 at 0825 hrs
Maybe this won’t affect me personally at all
I guess it might affect me personally, like when my out-of-state siblings fly into Milwaukee, and then visit us in Cedarburg, West Bend, LaCrosse, etc. They usually get a rental at the airport - at this point it just might make sense to have my brother who lives near the airport pick them up and bring them out by one of us & get a rental car here. Actually years ago, they used our extra cars, but it became more convenient for them to rent their own. The trips to the airport were “quality time” together anyway, so $16 might be a tipping point.
I can’t recall previous discussions about this “fee”, but I think somewhere along on the line, the rationalization was that most residents of the area would not be paying this tax (excuse me if I use tax instead of fee), that it would fall on out-of-state travelers, etc. It was “code” for “business will pay it”. Besides the insurance industry being affected, it will affect companies travel expenditures.
It was also noted that Milwaukee residents rent cars when their own cars are being repaired. Also, the environmentally sensitive residents will be impacted - on the east side of Milwaukee, especially, some have concluded that the expenses of owning a car & dealing with the parking hassles aren’t worth it. So they bike or bus or walk or rideshare, and then rent a car for those occasional trips out of town.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 01, 2009 at 1029 hrs
.
pay for a new monorail at the County Fair Park.
I think applies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3xGtjhZ_YgPosted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 01, 2009 at 1124 hrs
*this
to excited about the link to proof-read
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 01, 2009 at 1125 hrs
Why is the time of the vote relevant? This issue has been in front of the public for years. It has been up for debate as a part of the budget since February. The public had 6 hearings and two months to offer their thoughts. The fact that this was on the agenda was know for 3 days. It is public information as to what the committee did. Does it really matter that they did it at 1:00 am? Negotiations and lining up votes sometimes take a while. It isn’t like they developed a brand new proposal, they simply tweaked one on the table. The time for public comment was over, who cares when they voted?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 01, 2009 at 1510 hrs
Lefty: Here’s a new term for you. You may not understand, but the term is “appearance of impropriety”.
Look it up.
Posted by Steve on May 01, 2009 at 1652 hrs
funny how it’s always “how does this effect me?”
what about the greater good?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 01, 2009 at 1717 hrs
Funny how the people who preach “The Greater Good” always want other people to pay for it.
Let Milwaukee pay for its own shat, if the taxpayers/suckers who live in Milwaukee want to pay for Monorails and Choo Choo trains let them do it with their own money. They do that no one will care what they build.
Posted by Chris on May 01, 2009 at 1844 hrs
I was wondering what the “greater good” is - sounds like a brand name for a snack.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 01, 2009 at 1852 hrs
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Posted by Online Seo company on May 02, 2009 at 0234 hrs
Little Detroit will be just like its big brother. a tax island and noman’s land. We are just slightly behind Michigan’s exodus of businesses. This should help a little in helping us catch up to them.
Detroit has an interesting little thing called the People Mover. They should call it the air mover, since that seems to be its main function.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 02, 2009 at 0834 hrs
Curious, how is adding hundreds of millions of dollars in wasted spending for the greater good….
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 02, 2009 at 1011 hrs
You can disagree with the concept, certainly, but the timing is entirely irrelevant. I assure you, there about as many average citizens sitting in fourth floor East at 2 p.m. as there are at 2 a.m. The only people who attend JFC sessions are people who are paid to be there - reporters, lobbyists, staffers, pages.
There’s only an appearance of impropriety, Steve, if you’re willing to delude yourself into thinking that these guys actually pay attention to the clock. Now, if you would rather pay these guys per diem every day for a couple months so they can only work normal business hours, maybe suggest that to them. If not, don’t make an issue when things run long. Things ran long all the time when the GOP controlled both houses too - it’s just how it goes.
Posted by Recess Supervisor on May 02, 2009 at 1105 hrs
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