Wisconsin Supreme Court hears Brown County sales tax challenge

MADISON (WLUK) – Wisconsin Supreme Court justices debated the legality Tuesday of Brown County’s sales tax, in a case which could have statewide implications for how county boards spend such revenues.

Brown County’s half-percent tax, implemented in 2018, funded the new Resch Expo center, road and infrastructure improvements, the county jail, museum, libraries and parks. The Brown County Taxpayers Association challenged the tax, arguing that the sales tax is illegal because state law only allows counties to impose sales taxes to reduce property taxes -- not fund new spending.

Anthony LoCoco, the BCTA attorney, said Brown County violates the law.

“The county says that without the sales tax it would have funded these new projects with increased property taxes and therefore that it has directly reduced them. But the avoidance of a hypothetical increase is not the same as a reduction – much less a direct reduction,” LoCoco said.

Anthony Phillips, the county’s attorney, said the law does not require nor define a dollar-for-dollar reduction in property taxes.

Chief Justice Annette Ziegler, among others, pressed Phillips on if the county is actually delivering savings as the Legislature requires.

“What’s the property tax relief here?” Ziegler asked.

“The property taxpayers in Brown County are benefitting from not paying $42 million in interest that they otherwise would have had they borrowed that money. The property taxpayers, as a result of the borrowing freeze that’s contained in the ordinance, are receiving millions of dollars worth of benefit as debt comes off the books in Brown County. There is a direct reduction in the property tax levy as a result of the imposition of the sales and use tax in this case,” Phillips said.

It will be weeks or months before the court’s decision is released.

Of Wisconsin’s 72 counties, only four do not have a county sales tax: Manitowoc, Racine, Waukesha, and Winnebago.