Brown County Courthouse WRN photo
The Brown County executive’s office is speaking out against a recently-filed lawsuit aimed at stopping the county’s newly-implemented half-percent sales tax.
Deputy Executive Jeff Flynt questions why the Brown County Taxpayers Association would file suit against the tax, which is expected to fund $147-million dollars in infrastructure projects.
“This frivolous lawsuit, that we know about, is not going to prevent us from moving forward with the plans that we have in place for calendar year 2018.”
Flynt says the county anticipates moving forward this year with planning for road repairs, a new jail pod, and a museum exhibit redesign.
“We’re at a loss as to why this group would want to adversely impact the property tax payers of Brown County. Instead of getting help from outside the county to help fund these projects, they’d rather have the full burden put on the backs of the property tax payers.”
Flynt claims there would be multiple repercussions if the county had to instead bond for the money to cover the various efforts.
“Extra finance charges of $40-million dollars, raise the property tax levy to be able to pay for the bonding of these projects.”
The Taxpayers Association says a failure to reduce the property tax levy makes the tax illegal.
They are asking for a temporary restraining order on the tax being collected, with the tax having gone into effect on January 1.
However, no court dates had been scheduled at last word.
WTAQ