La Crosse board avoids wheel tax discussions … again

Last meeting of 2015 goes
much like first meeting of 2015

At its first meeting of 2015, the La Crosse county board voted to table a proposed county wheel tax that had been slammed by angry taxpayers.

The issue came up again Thursday night at the board’s final meeting of 2015 with basically the same result – the board doesn’t want to deal with it right now.

Board members specifically declined to take up a plan – that was defeated in committee – to have an advisory referendum on a wheel tax during the April election.

The reason given for the referendum was to get public opinion on the tax plan as a way to pay for highway repairs. Some observers, however, suspect that the timing of the question was aimed at getting tax opponents to vote in large numbers to defeat incumbent county board members.