Alleges City Imposing Unlawful Property Tax
NEENAH – Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) – the state’s combined chamber of commerce and manufacturers’ association – served a notice of claim on the City of Neenah, with the WMC Litigation Center serving as its counsel. The city accepted service of the notice on Wednesday. In the notice, WMC argues the city’s Transportation Assessment Replacement Fee (TARF) is an illegal tax under recent precedent.
Last year, the Wisconsin Supreme Court unanimously struck down a Transportation Utility Fee (TUF) imposed by the Town of Buchanan in Wisconsin Property Taxpayers v. Town of Buchanan. And then last March, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals unanimously struck down another TUF imposed by the Village of Pewaukee in WMC v. Village of Pewaukee. In its notice of claim, WMC asserts Neenah’s TARF is substantively identical to both of those recently invalidated TUFs.
“First Neenah was imposing an unconstitutional sign ordinance, which the Litigation Center fought against and defeated in court. Now Neenah is disregarding the rule of law again with its TARF. And this time, it’s doing so in the face of directly on-point and recent case law,” said Scott Rosenow, WMC Litigation Center’s Executive Director. “Buchanan and Pewaukee couldn’t be any clearer: The TARF is a tax and Neenah has no authority to impose it.”
Neenah began collecting its TARF, which is imposed on every developed property in the municipality, in 2023, and sharply increased the costs earlier this year. As municipalities may impose taxes only when state law explicitly authorizes them to do so, they have no inherent power to impose taxes. Additionally, courts have resoundingly held that no state law authorizes a municipality to impose a property tax that is based on a property’s estimated use of a road.
“Neenah’s TARF hurts every property owner in Neenah, especially businesses,” said Nathan Kane, WMC Litigation Center’s Deputy Director. “We hope the City will do what it refused to do with its unconstitutional sign ordinance and repeal the illegal TARF before it’s invalidated in court.”
