Signed Milwaukee County budget includes wheel tax

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Getting half of what you wanted is better than getting nothing at all.

That’s at least the thought that Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele will have to console himself with now that he’s signed the county’s 2017 budget. That spending plan calls for the adoption of a $30 local wheel tax, which was half of what he had originally proposed.

A wheel tax is actually a local vehicle-registration fee tacked on top of the annual $75 collected by the state. Any money it generates can only be used for transportation-related expenses.

Milwaukee County’s $30-a-year wheel tax is expected to produce $13.5 million each year. Much of the money will be used to cover operating costs associated with public buses. The rest will go toward rebuilding and maintaining roads, bridges and county parkways.

When he had first proposed a $60 wheel tax in late September, Abele argued it was the county’s only real option for bolstering its transportation budget.

The decision to cut Abele’s proposal in half came earlier this month in the form of an amendment to his proposed budget. Proponents of the reduction did not dispute the notion that the county’s transportation budget was being pushed to the breaking point. But they wanted to place less of a financial burden on county residents.

Abele said that accepting the reduced wheel tax does not mean he no longer prefers his original proposal for a $60 fee.

“I hope this will be the beginning of a true dialogue and partnership about how we can put the county on a more sustainable path through the use of a (vehicle-registration fee), as well as lobbying for other options not currently available to the County,” Abele said in a statement.

Abele only vetoed one of the 44 amendments to the budget that the county board had sent to his desk. He eliminated a proposal that would have cut $188,150 from his office’s budget. The change would have required his office to eliminate three workers’ positions. Including Abele, the county executive’s office employs nine people.

At least one County Board member criticized Abele’s single veto, and argued it would reflect poorly on the county executive in his push for the adoption eventually of a higher wheel tax.

“It will be hard for County Executive Abele to sell his $60 wheel tax to voters in April if he refuses to tighten his own belt, control the salaries of his appointed staff and keep his pledge to freeze his office budget,” County Board Chairman Theodore Lipscomb said in a statement on Friday.

The county’s budget also includes a proposal to hold a referendum next spring, when voters could have a direct say on Abele’s call for a $60 wheel tax.