On Monday, the WMC Litigation Center filed a letter brief in WMC’s appeal challenging the Village of Pewaukee’s transportation tax. (The WMC Litigation Center previously filed its main brief in this appeal.) This lawsuit is now before the Wisconsin Court of Appeals after a Waukesha County judge upheld the transportation tax as a permissible fee for services. In the letter brief, WMC heavily relies on the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s recent, unanimous ruling striking down the Town of Buchanan’s “transportation utility fee” (TUF) as an unlawful tax. WMC argues in its letter brief that Pewaukee’s TUF is unlawful for the same reasons as Buchanan’s TUF.
This lawsuit is significant because more than 15 municipalities around Wisconsin have either adopted a similar tax or proposed doing so. This type of tax heavily falls on businesses because it is based on the amount of traffic that a property is estimated to generate. These transportation taxes can be very costly, exceeding ordinary property taxes for some businesses.
