Think your tax bill's bad?
Menomonee Falls - State mandates, cuts and bargaining changes will keep tax bills for most Wisconsin residents from going through the roof this year. As local tax bills go out and federal taxes come due, a reporter wanted to know which companies were paying critical portions of Menomonee Falls' tax revenue.
It should come as no surprise that Kohl's Corporate Offices handle by far the largest tax burden of any entity in the village. The retail giant paid more than $1.7 million on its 2010 bill for taxes that funded 2011's operations.
You'd need to add the next three largest taxpayers just to cover that same amount when it comes to filling village coffers. In fact, Kohl's is the seventh-largest taxpayer in all of Waukesha County, with an equalized value ahead of other commercial behemoths like General Electric Medical Systems and Quad/Graphics.
Having corporate headquarters for Kohl's, a Harley-Davidson facility and others can stir interest from other major private-sector players.
"When we tell our story that we're the third largest manufacturing tax base in the state and that we have 45,000 primary jobs in the community of 36,000," explains Village Manager Mark Fitzgerald, "it's pretty much an eye-opener. We are clearly not a bedroom community. We don't act like one. We don't function like one."
More than just cash cows
Keeping Kohl's remains a focus for the village particularly given its stature as a revenue source for the village. On the other hand, even these top 10 companies only account for about 7 percent of the entire village tax base according to Village Planner and Economic Development Specialist Matt Dorner.
In other words, losing a corporate giant wouldn't be an impossible obstacle to overcome. However, Fitzgerald says Menomonee Falls views these corporations as more than just cash cows.
"What we view as significant is not just property tax long-term, but the employment, the corporate things they do in partnership with the community and the roles their employees also play in the community."
Like every community, Menomonee Falls has tax-exempt entities like churches, schools and hospitals, all of which sit on land which may otherwise be desired by commercial enterprises.
Falls officials, however, don't see the village as being hamstrung from an economic development standpoint. "We don't have anything on the extreme. I think we're relatively in balance," Fitzgerald insisted.
"Having said that, we consider having a regional hospital in our community a major benefit."
Attractive to businesses
Dorner says not only the hospital, but all of the companies on the top 10 list like Harley-Davidson and Waste Management offer examples of successful corporate ventures in the village.
"If (companies) are doing their due diligence, that's definitely something they should be looking at. Why are these businesses in a variety of sectors, locating in these areas?" Dorner asked rhetorically.
"I think, as a package, those things all play strongly for the village."
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Photo of the Week by Todd Ponath: ROCKIN' IT - Fred Eide, left, and his daughter Ashley, of Eide Painting and Sandblasting, use spray guns to paint the individual rock shapes on the underside of the I-94 overpass at Highway P in Oconomowoc Wednesday, May 16. Each "rock" is painted individually and then speckled with black paint to make it look like granite.
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