, ,

Wisconsin Senate Approves Tax Incentives For Sheboygan County Cheese Plant

Oostburg Hopes To Increase Amount Of Tax Money Used On Infrastructure For Proposed Plant

By
Wisconsin state Capitol
jpellgen (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

During the year’s first session, the Wisconsin Senate voted unanimously in favor of letting a village near Sheboygan to exceed the limit on tax incremental financing.

Under current state law, local governments can build roads and other infrastructure for potential businesses by using tax money through a tax incremental financing district, called a TIF. The law limits the total amount of TIFs for each town to 12 percent of the taxable property.

Through Senate Bill 1, the Village of Oostburg hopes to increase their limit to 15 percent in order to bring in a $30 million cheese processing and distribution plant from Plymouth-based Masters Gallery Foods.

Stay informed on the latest news

Sign up for WPR’s email newsletter.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Village President Allen Wrubbel said temporarily increasing the village’s TIF limit would have a huge impact on the community.

“What it does is it gives us the opportunity that we normally couldn’t take. Our budget, if we didn’t TIF it, there’s no way we could have Masters Gallery here,” Wrubbel said.

Wrubbel said the new plant would create more than 100 jobs and bring new consumers to local businesses. The new facility would be 150,000 square feet, according to The Associated Press.

Sen. Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, said he appreciates the bipartisan response to the measure.

“Anytime we can add and retain great paying jobs in Wisconsin, we should definitely be fighting for that,” LeMahieu said.

LeMahieu said Masters Gallery already employs 600 people in Plymouth and pays general laborers an hourly wage between $18 and $22.

The bill now goes the Assembly for consideration.