Local News
Publication on PRAT misinterpreted by voters
Revenue department unsure why publication seems to indicate tax in place in other counties.
Since introduction, the premier resort area tax for La Crosse county has been represented as the first of its kind for a Wisconsin county.
Although we’ve heard from voters who insisted that’s not the case and, in fact, two other counties also have the same tax in place.
County board chair Tara Johnson and county administrator Steve O’Malley both insisted to us La Crosse would be the first.
A link we followed from the La Crosse county website leads directly to a state publication on the premier resort area tax.
There, in bold red, we found an indication that Sheboygan and Kewaunee counties have a tax that is now in effect.
A call to the state’s Department of Revenue confirmed that but a spokesperson said the information about the counties was in relation to a different sales tax.
The new sales taxes that went into effect in Sheboygan and Kewaunee counties this year are the regular, half percent variety that La Crosse county consumers have been paying for a couple of decades.
However, the spokesperson we talked with in Madison did not have a ready answer for why the info was included on a publication that deals solely with the premier resort area tax.
The most current information we have, therefore, is that six municipalities have a premier resort area tax in place.
La Crosse county would be the first county if the new half percent sales tax on certain goods is eventually adopted.
Voters in the county approved the tax in an advisory referendum on Tuesday.
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