$95: Milwaukee Wheel Tax Raises Registration Fee

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Milwaukee drivers will pay the highest vehicle registration fees in Wisconsin — $95 a year — after a Common Council vote Tuesday.

With no debate, aldermen overrode Mayor Tom Barrett's veto of an annual $20-per-car municipal vehicle fee, also known as a wheel tax.

That action means the new fee will be added to Milwaukee motorists' state vehicle registration renewal notices starting in November. For each one of the more than 330,000 cars and light trucks kept in the city, vehicle owners will have to pay the $20 local fee in addition to the $75 state fee. The state fee itself rose $20 this year, from $55 last year.

...Voting for the new tax were council President Willie Hines Jr. and Aldermen Bob Bauman, Jim Bohl, Milele Coggs, Joe Davis Sr., Bob Donovan, Ashanti Hamilton, Nik Kovac, Robert Puente, Willie Wade and Jim Witkowiak. Opposed were Aldermen Joe Dudzik, Michael Murphy, Terry Witkowski and Tony Zielinski.

...Milwaukee is only the seventh municipal or county government in the state to try the fee, and it will be one of only three now using it. St. Croix County imposed a $10-per-car fee earlier this year, joining Beloit, which also has a $10 fee. Wheel taxes have been dropped in Kenosha, Sheboygan, Amery and Marathon County.

...One point that remains unclear is how the wheel tax would affect a possible increase in the snow and ice fee. In July, budget chief Mark Nicolini said Barrett would seek to raise the snow and ice fee by $5 this month to help cover the costs of dealing with a harsh winter that drove the city millions of dollars over budget.

At that time, however, Nicolini and aldermen suggested a wheel tax boost might offset the need for a snow and ice fee increase, depending on how money could be moved around in the Department of Public Works budget. Since then, administration officials have not clarified the relationship between the fees.

Barrett spokeswoman Eileen Force said Tuesday the impact of the wheel tax is still unclear for this year and next year.

Actually, the impact of the wheel tax is very clear.

Starting in November, Milwaukee residents will have to pay $40 more than they did last year for vehicle registration.

There's a new tax. They'll be forking over $40 more to the government.

There's your impact.