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1998 Wisconsin Attorney General Reports and Opinions 1 (1998)

handle is hein.sag/sagwi0025 and id is 1 raw text is: STATE OF WISCONSIN
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
jAMES E. DOYLE                                         114 East, State Capitol
ATTORNEY GENERAL                                       P.O. Box 7857
Madison, WI 53707-7857
Burneatta L. Bridge                                    608/266-1221
Deputy Attorney General
OAG 1-98
May 5, 1998
Mr. Dennis E. Kenealy
Corporation Counsel
Ozaukee County
Post Office Box 994
Port Washington, WI 53074-0994
Dear Mr. Kenealy:
You ask, in effect, how funds received from a county sales and
use tax imposed under section 77.70, Stats., may be budgeted by the
county board.
In my opinion, such funds may be budgeted to reduce the amount
of the overall countywide property tax levy or to defray the cost
of any item which can be funded by a countywide property tax.
Section 77.70 provides in part:
Any county desiring to impose county sales and use
taxes under this subchapter may do so by the adoption of
an ordinance, stating its purpose and referring to this
subchapter.  The county sales and use taxes may be
imposed only for the purpose of directly reducing the
property tax levy and only in their entirety as provided
in this subchapter.
Prior to 1985, counties had the authority to impose sales and
use taxes, but the Wisconsin Department of Revenue was required to
distribute all of the net proceeds of such taxes to towns, cities
and villages within the county imposing the tax. See sec. 77.70,
Stats. (1983) and sec. 77.76(4), Stats. (1983).   In 1971, the
Attorney General opined that a county board could not require by
ordinance that the net proceeds of a county sales and use tax be
used solely to reduce property taxes levied by the various taxing
jurisdictions but must instead be distributed to towns, cities and
villages with no conditions attached. See 60 Op. Att'y Gen. 387
(1971). Prior to 1985 few, if any, counties imposed a sales and
use tax, presumably because none of the proceeds of the tax could
be used by county government and because counties could not control

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