This is such a bad idea.

The City of Oconomowoc and its Citizens have a big problem our roads are bad and getting worse. This is due to years of underfunding and half measure to try and fix roads
As you have probable know the political leadership of Oconomowoc led by the Mayor Maury Sullivan's and 5 member of the Oconomowoc city council have decided the best way to raise money to fix our dilapidated road system is to form a transportation utility district (TUD). This is a "User Fee" not a tax where each property is charged for what the city believes their road use is. One of the local papers the Oconomowoc Focus has two good articles link1 and link2 which give a good explanation of what the Mayor wants to do. So I will not fisk the whole articles but I will repeat one number that jumped out and just stunned me.

The city has estimated that, under a TUD, a supermarket, which under the current system pays about $1,208 in transportation costs, would pay $10,638.

I have learned not to do math here but that strikes me as very unfair. If you were a business why would you move your shop to the city of Oconomowoc. Plus if I understand this, my property taxes will not go down a dime and I will have to pay this extra fee. On top of that I will be helping every local business I use pay that fee. Do the Mayor and the councilmen who are for this believe the businesses will not pass this fee on to their customers? They would be stupid not to pass it on, so great now I get to help pay their share too along with my neighbors. What about the smaller shops and stores this drives out of business? Downtown Oconomowoc has a number of vacant and for rent stores already how many will call it quits due to this fee? I would also like to know have they done everything they can to cut the city budget to find more money for road repairs?

This TUD fee idea is a new Tax and its a punitive one, it punishes businesses whose only crime is providing a service to the City. I mean the majority of the these cars are already in the City so they are not being drawn to Oconomowoc to use these stores and businesses. I mean if you going to try and use a pay for what you use system why not put toll booths on the roads in and out of the City. At least that system would be more fair.

Another "selling" point being used by those in favor of the new Tax/Fee is enitys like churches and municipal buildings will have to pay it. Wait how does that save me money if the local school has to pay this fee, guess whose taxes will be raised by the school board to pay for it. Where do you think those churches are going to get the money to pay this from their members who live in the city most likely.

So let me see if I understand this, I get to pay this fee, I get to pay higher prices to help my local businesses pay the fee. Some of my property taxes which are given to the local schools will help pay for the fee and if I went to church I am sure they would be asking for a bigger donation to help pay for the fee. Sorry I don't see how this is saving me one dime.

The other issue that isn't being answered is why were the road allowed to get this bad by past leadership. Allow me give you a couple of examples of how Oconomowoc has dealt with the roads falling apart.


These three shot all show the years of patching and pothole filling the city has used to try and avoid fixing this road, which is by my house just for the record. If you look you can see patches upon patches.

I believe some investigation into how this happen and who was at the helm when it happen needs to be done and if any of those people are still in elected office in Oconomowoc something needs to be done about that. I have only lived here about 6 years so I am still learning the local history but I will look into that. But that is for another post.

I understand the current Mayor is not the cause of this he has been in office less than 2 years and this is years of neglect and underfunding that caused this. But that said I believe this fee is not the right answer and in the end will not raise as much money as they believe as business close or chose not to locate here.

There is supposed to be another meeting on Nov 1st which I hope to be able to attend.

One final thought before this turns into an Opus is in the coming election cycles we need to pin down the people running for office pledges of "holding the line on taxes" will not be good enough any longer. We need to also get promises of "No new fees" or "I will hold the line on fees and taxes", since in Wisconsin the politicos seem to think a fee isn't a tax.

If this isn't stopped here and now in Oconomowoc it will be visiting a town or city near you soon.

Regards,
GBfan