The Democratic candidate for the 6th Assembly District took the Shawano Common Council to task Oct. 9 for the vehicle registration fee, commonly referred to as a wheel tax, it passed last month and accused the council members of approving it without public input.
The fee would be $40 for any vehicles that are 8,000 pounds or less and housed within the city limits, and it would be tacked onto vehicle owners’ registrations on any renewals beginning Jan. 1, 2025, and collected from the Wisconsin Division of Motor Vehicles.
Shirley Hinze, D-Shawano, introduced herself as a candidate but said that, as a community resident, she was concerned about the impact of the fee, especially on the elderly. She claimed she came into City Hall to get more information about the fee and asked a staff member to provide the information.
“Her answer to me was, ‘Well, you’re going to have to email the village administrator,’” Hinze said, using an incorrect title for City Administrator Eddie Sheppard. “Excuse me? That’s public record, and it should have been made available to me during that time. You have gone from pondering this to making a decision on it with absolutely zero public input.”
The wheel tax was discussed at three council meetings. On Aug. 14, the agenda item was listed as discussion regarding municipal revenue opportunities, not specifying the fee. Discussion was also held Aug. 28 at a special council meeting during an agenda item for the city’s budget discussion. The final decision was made Sept. 11, where the matter was put on the agenda as “Ordinance No. 2033: Approve Implementation of a Municipal Vehicle Registration Fee.” All three meetings were open to the public.
Also among the discussion at the first two meetings were the options of establishing a wastewater utility, a requirement for municipalities once they pass 10,000 residents, as well as putting a referendum to voters asking for the approval to go above and beyond the revenue cap established by the state.
Hinze said it was the second time the city has “done this” to residents, claiming a similar thing was done when the city approved having off-road vehicles on most of its paved streets. At the same meeting, the council approved having ORVs on Main Street, as well as Green Bay Street from the western city limits to Eberlein Park Drive, where the speed limit jumps up to 40 miles per hour. Previously, those streets were not allowed to have ORVs.
“There are citizens in this community sitting here. What are the specifics of the wheel fee, other than 8,000 pounds or less?” Hinze said, but council members and staff could not reply because the vehicle registration fee was not on the Oct. 9 agenda.
Hinze said that she has neighbors with college students that can expect to see their combined vehicle fees increase by $160 next year because of the city’s decision.
“These kids are going to school. They’re working, they have registration fees to pay and everything else, and now the city’s going to go and do this,” Hinze said.
The wheel tax will also impact the elderly who are on fixed incomes, Hinze said.
“Now you’re going to add on top of $85 a $40 fee,” she said. “I want specifics. That $40 fee is going to be on vehicles for how many years? Anybody?”
Hinze acknowledged that the city is in this situation because of the Wisconsin Legislature enacting measures to cap revenue from local property taxes and “forced communities with a tax freeze to scramble for revenues.”
“This is happening to every single community within this district, and you’re the only one who has done this $40 fee,” Hinze said.
She recommended extending the fee to off-road vehicles, as well, and she suggested that a fee be applied to those who own short-term AirBNB rentals.
“As long as you’re going to assess this on people that live in the community and not address the tourism that comes into the community with the other private ownership, I don’t think you have really a good base for putting a $40 fee on this residents of this community until you present some very good specifics as to why,” Hinze said. “These fees will bury you until something is changed in Madison. This is a stop-gap measure.”
Mayor Bruce Milavitz, responding remotely from Las Vegas, said that the city had “public hearings” on the wheel tax, even though there was not a specific public hearing that generally takes place at the start of a meeting when required. He claimed that the field committee discussed it for “two or three months.”
A review of the field committee minutes for meetings in 2024 showed no indication of discussion about the vehicle registration fee in the first half of the year, but the July 30 minutes, which were scheduled for approval by the committee Sept. 24, were not available for online viewing.
Milavitz acknowledged that Hinze had a good point regarding the fee’s impact on residents of the community.
“Unfortunately, there’s a state system that is not allowing the communities to tax on the property taxes, which is what we normally do, and if that were to happen, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion tonight,” Milavitz said. “We didn’t have the ability to do that, so we had to look for another source of revenue.”
Milavitz invited Hinze to discuss the matter in person.
lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com
Hinze rips into council over new wheel tax
