(The Center Square) – The Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce are asking for the village of Pewaukee to be held in contempt of court after the village continued to charge a transportation utility tax that was found to be an impermissible tax.
The Wisconsin Court of Appeals found in Wisconsin the tax was an unlawful property tax assessed through a newly formed utility that spends its money exclusively on pavement preservation, street and sidewalk construction or reconstruction, street lighting, traffic control, pedestrian facilities, storage for the equipment used for these purposes and its own administration.
The WMC Litigation Center argued the newly formed utility was a workaround for a municipality to exceed its taxing authority.
In the case of Buchanan, the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down a similar transportation utility tax. So, in March, the Court of Appeals said that the same principle applies to the Pewaukee tax.
But Pewaukee continued to assess the tax, so WMC Litigation is asking for the court to have the village return those funds to taxpayers backdated to March 13.
“The Pewaukee village government’s actions are egregious twice over,” said WMC Litigation Center Executive Director Scott Rosenow. “The Village of Pewaukee continued imposing its so-called transportation utility fee after the Wisconsin Supreme Court unanimously ruled in the Town of Buchanan case that such charges are actually unlawful taxes.
“Worse yet, Pewaukee directly defied the Wisconsin Court of Appeals by imposing these taxes even after that court ruled they are impermissible. Pewaukee’s defiance of the court of appeals is contempt of court.”
