Brown County asks judge to end sales-tax case, as total legal costs exceed $127,000

Doug Schneider | Green Bay Press Gazette

Show Caption Hide Caption Brown County gives final OK to expo center, room-tax plan Brown County gives final OK to expo center, room-tax plan

GREEN BAY - A court filing by Brown County would stop a challenge to the county's new sales tax, and would cost the group filing the challenge some money if the county has its way.

Lawyers for the county on Wednesday asked a judge to declare the ordinance that created the sales tax "valid and enforceable," and allow it and the county's 2018 budget to remain in effect. That would essentially end a legal challenge to the tax by the Brown County Taxpayers Association, said David Hemery, the county's chief attorney.

"BCTA … has created uncertainty, and having uncertainty at any level of government is not a good thing — especially as we start preparing the 2019 budget," Executive Troy Streckenbach said in an a written statement. "The county doesn’t have bottomless pockets like BCTA," which he said has "engaged a special interest group to foot the bill."

BCTA has 20 business days to respond in court.

RELATED: Click here to read the county's request

In a statement, the leader of a group working with the taxpayers association said it's the county that's wasting money and time.

"Brown County spent $125,000 fighting to have (the lawsuit) dismissed, only to turn around and file its own lawsuit on the exact same issue," Rick Esenberg, president and general counsel for the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, said via email.

"Both the original lawsuit and the county's new lawsuit ask the court to rule on whether the … sales tax is legal. If the county had just let the original suit proceed, this whole issue could have been resolved already," Esenberg wrote, because the judge assigned to the case said in February that he was prepared to rule in April.

County leaders also asked the judge to direct the group to pay the county's "costs, disbursements and attorney" fees related to the request it just filed.

The costs of the latest filing will depend on the amount of legal work that ensues, Hemery said. Thomas C. Kamenick, deputy counsel and litigation manager for WILL, said the law caps that amount at $500 if a judge decides to order them to be paid.

The county's total costs, which include the hiring of a Milwaukee law firm, approached $128,000 as of last week. Those earlier costs are not covered in the county's latest request for reimbursement.

Brown County's filing is the latest shot in the battle in which BCTA claims the tax is illegal because the money that is collected is not directly applied to reducing property taxes.

County leaders insist the lawsuit is frivolous; County Board Chairman Patrick Moynihan Jr. this week called it "meritless." All but six of Wisconsin's 72 counties have a local sales tax.

A timeline of the case:

»May 2017: Streckenbach proposes the sales tax to raise $147 million for new buildings, road repairs and other capital projects. County residents would pay an extra 50 cents on a $100 purchase.

The proposal says the tax will last no more than six years, and that residents' county tax bills won't increase while the sales tax is in effect, and that it will enable the county to reduce debt. Streckenbach also proposes using a "room tax" — a 10 percent charge on hotel room rentals — to fund a $93 million exposition center to replace the deteriorating Veterans Memorial Arena in Ashwaubenon.

RELATED: Arena repairs will cost $275,000, take longer than initially estimated

»August 2017: The expo-center funding plan receives the OK from officials in Green Bay, who earlier had objected. Green Bay was the last of the seven municipalities with hotels to OK the use of room-tax money for the project.

»Later in August: Twenty-three of the 26 county supervisors approve Streckenbach's plan.

Supporters say the tax will fund $60 million in road and bridge improvements, a proposed $20 million expansion to the county's crowded jail, a science and technology center planned for the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, a medical examiner's building and a number of other needed projects at a cost much lower than had the county borrowed money for them.

RELATED: With OK from County Board, $93M expo center project clears final hurdle

»January 2018: The taxpayers association and one of its members, Ashwaubenon resident Frank Bennett, file legal papers claiming the tax is illegal and asking a court to declare it invalid.

Backed by the Wisconsin Institution for Law and Liberty, which promotes limited government, BCTA alleges that the tax can only be used to reduce property taxes. The association also says that not all the proposed projects are needed.

RELATED: In lawsuit, group asks judge to end Brown County's new 0.5% sales tax

»February 2018: Lawyers for the county ask Circuit Judge William Atkinson to throw out the BCTA claim, saying it doesn't meet legal standards.

RELATED: Brown County asks judge to toss group's lawsuit to end county sales tax

»March 2018: Atkinson grants the county's request, but allows the group a week to re-file.

It does so a day later.

RELATED: County sales tax survives first legal challenge; judge rejects BCTA motion

»April 2018: Streckenbach's administration asks the County Board to commit another $250,000 to fight the sales-tax case. The county says it has already spent $110,000 — about three times its total 2018 budget for outside legal help.

RELATED: How much? Brown County wants another $250,000 to pay lawsuit cost

»May 2018: County Board Chairman Patrick Moynihan says the cost of defending the sales-tax case is $127,763.34 "thanks to them," meaning BCTA.

»May 2018: The county asks a judge to throw out the case and order BCTA to reimburse the county for legal fees.