A MERCURY MARINE SALES TAX? No thank you...

First of all, I like Allen Buechel. Prior to mayor, when I reporting the news, I found him to be open and straightforward. Since being mayor, I have found him to be receptive and open to the issues and ideas of Ripon. I think he has provided valuable leadership and continuity to Fond du Lac County. That is why it pains me to see him proposing a half-cent sales tax to fund economic development, with the main recipient likely being Mercury Marine if they decide to keep their corporate offices in Fond du Lac.

This sales tax would be county-wide, but I believe it would further cement the perception, whether it is true or not, that the borders of Fond du Lac County only extend to the city limits of Fond du Lac. Other communities in this county have faced the potential loss of jobs which would have been similar to or even exceeded the impact of Mercury Marine in Fond du Lac. Not too long ago, Alliance Laundry Systems flirted with the idea of moving their operations to Mexico. Not once, as mayor, did I hear a proposal from Fond du Lac County to implement a sales tax and add the revenue to the incentive and retention packages we were discussing with the decision makers at Alliance. Once again, when Bremner Foods was considering a move of their operations from Ripon to northern Illinois, no discussion of a sales tax was brought forward. To compare the loss of Bremner, and especially Alliance, would have any less impact on Ripon and western Fond du Lac County's economy than Mercury Marine's decision to leave Fond du Lac is a debate that could go on forever, but all three scenarios would be devasating in their own horrific way.

According to the media reports, "the half percent additional sales tax could generate more than $6 million annually and allow county officials to implement an aggressive economic development strategy to maintain and draw jobs into the county. If Mercury Marine accepts local government's incentive package to keep its headquarters in Fond du Lac, the sales tax would likely become a reality." Unfortunately, as the mayor of the largest city west of Fond du Lac, I have a tendency to believe the vast majority of the funds raised for an agressive economic development plan would go to the city of Fond du Lac to remedy the ills resulting from the loss of the manufacturing base and to keep the Mercury Marine white collar jobs in Fond du Lac.

Do I want to see Mercury Marine leave Fond du Lac? Of course not. To even suggest that would be counter to every shred of economic development progress we have made in Ripon and the surrounding area. But with that said, Buechel has estimated that 22 percent of the sales tax is paid by people from outside the county. That means 78 percent of us will pay a tax, which has been targeted for one company, under the veil of "county-wide" economic development. To me, I don't feel like paying more in taxes because the management and union of a business could not come together to resolve their differences. I am not going to get into an argument over what led to this point in the Mercury Marine meltdown, but the answer is not raising taxes.

Fond du Lac County Board supervisors would need to approve the sales tax and could state their intent to "sunset" the sales tax after the set incentive period, according to the news article in the Fond du Lac Reporter. I have covered government, criticized government and been in government. Sunset taxes look good on paper, but after seeing our governor raid funds and use money from funds that were supposed to sunsetted (see the cell phone 911 surcharge fund), I would have ZERO level of trust in anyone to propose a tax with a sunset date unless the legislation includes potential incarceration for anyone who violates that sunset requirement without voter approval.

I hope the Mercury Marine situation resolves it, but if the sales tax proposal is an idea rising from the ashes, then a bad situation has become even worse for Fond du Lac County.