Letter to the Editor

Date: March 21, 2005

Preserve rural character

In January I suggested that the county sales tax of .5 percent be cut in half on the premise that $8.3 million of undesignated funds annually were too tempting for any municipality to have at its disposal. This amount has grown from about $4.5 million since the tax was started Jan. 1, 1999 .

Tony Warren, president of West Bend Mutual Insurance Company, wrote a letter to the editor suggesting that a portion of the existing sales tax be devoted to preserving farmland in our rapidly urbanizing county, with a priority given to the purchase of conservation easements (development rights).

I heartily endorse Tony's position. First, because it's the best and highest priority for spending county sales tax dollars in contrast to brick and mortar projects. Secondly, if an annual percentage of sales tax is irrevocably allocated to land preservation, we will know how it is going to be invested. Capital expenditure budgets are far less predictable and often controversial.

Specifically, I would recommend earmarking .2 percent of the current .5 percent county sales tax for preserving open space in Washington County . These funds should not be earmarked for an expanded park system, but used primarily to preserve farmlands and special locations that currently enhance our environment.

County Board supervisors should recognize that each of them has a growing constituency anxious to support this critical endeavor. I urge each voting constituent to contact your County Board supervisor and let him or her know you are concerned that farmland acreage in Washington County dropped from a total of 137,784 acres in 1997 to 129,087 acres in 2002. During this same period the number of farms in the county dropped by 11.4 percent from 953 to 844.

R.D. Ziegler, Town of West Bend