News Article

Date: June 14, 2006
By DAVE RANK - GM Today Staff

Washington County-funded PDR defeated

Board reverses March vote on land preservation program

Washington County’s purchase of development rights program died in its crib Tuesday on a 15-14 vote by the Washington County Board, 92 days after a difficult and contested birth.

The new board installed in April reversed the 17-11 decision made by the 2004-2006 board March 14 and blocked any action to actually create the first county-funded purchase of development rights rural land preservation program in the state.

In an ironic twist to the proceedings, new County Board Chairman Thomas Sackett, who ordered this second debate on PDR and scheduled the second vote for Tuesday, did not attend yesterday’s meeting. A family emergency, his wife’s illness, prevented him from attending, and first vice-chairman Daniel Stoffel presided over the session.

Sackett voted against the PDR resolution March 14. Stoffel is one of the most visible leaders supporting the proposed program.

The debate Tuesday did not vary much from the arguments for and against PDR that were presented March 14 and since.

Advocates argued that:

- The county’s $629.9 million agricultural industry is being subdivisioned out of existence and needs help.

- That prime agricultural soils are being gobbled up and lost forever to urbanization.

- That open spaces needed to recharge the region’s underground water supply are being covered by asphalt and housing tracts.

- And the rural character and quality of life that draws people to this county in the first place are being destroyed.

Implementing the program would cost a typical family in the county $18 a year, proponents said.

"Eighteen dollars a year for a typical family. You can’t even have a pizza party for 18 dollars any more. It’s really a low amount," said Donald Berchem, town of West Bend.

James Spindler Jr., German-town, said he would change his vote to support PDR. While he still felt sales tax money should not be used to fund it, "preservation of land and water trump that problem I have with it. Hopefully, we can work out a better way to fund this."

Countering those arguments, opponents of PDR again hammered away at the unfairness of taxing all so that a few farmers could benefit and expressed suspicions creating such a new program would only increase the size of government.

Several said there should be an advisory referendum to indicate the level of public support for a PDR program.

Supervisor Roy Justman, West Bend, who voted against the PDR program, went so far as to say he was "appalled" that "free-thinking individuals" and "strong advocates of free enterprise" such as farmers would willingly give up any of their personal rights.

"I cannot, for the life of me, understand why anyone would give up your (property) rights, and that’s exactly what you’re doing."

He also expressed strong fears about the growth of government: "Government intervention, when will it end? ... You keep turning everything over to government, my children and grandchildren will have more to worry about than (lost) scenic views."

Once again, not one opponent to the PDR program said they opposed land use planning and preserving rural landscapes in principal. They just didn’t want the county to fund it.

Mark McCune, town of Erin, said philosophically he was opposed to the program because "we’re forcing this on everyone. Everyone has to pay for it."

Private donations should pay for such land preservation, he said, not tax money.

The nine supervisors newly elected to the board in April proved decisive in Tuesday’s vote. They voted 5-4 against the PDR program with five of them reversing votes cast by their predecessors, four of those five voting against PDR this time.

Three re-elected supervisors switched their votes with two of them joining the opposition camp.

All but one opposition vote came from the urbanized or "gentrified" communities of Germantown, Richfield, Erin, Hartford, Jackson and West Bend. Only three pro-PDR votes came from urban centers, one each from Germantown, Slinger and West Bend.

This story appeared in the West Bend Daily News on June 14, 2006.