Sales Tax Pays For More Than Economic Development

Although the Fond du Lac County sales tax has helped with economic development opportunities in the county, it has also helped improve roads and kept down county debt. County Executive Al Buechel notes about $3 million a year from the sales tax goes into improving county roads. He says County Highway Commissioner Tom Janke isn’t just having the roads paved over, there are significant improvements being made to them. With what is included in the county’s 2018 budget just under $25 million in highway improvements have been made over the years with sales tax monies. The county also uses some of the money for capital projects, which keeps down the levy. Buechel says the sales tax has also allowed the county to levy a constant amount of about $5 million a year for debt, which would have gone up if they had to borrow for road improvements and capital projects.