Chapter 66

66.0615(2) (2) As a means of enforcing the collection of any room tax imposed by a municipality or a district under sub. (1m), the municipality or district may do any of the following:

66.0615(2)(a) (a) If a municipality or district has probable cause to believe that the correct amount of room tax has not been assessed or that the tax return is not correct, inspect and audit the records of any person subject to sub. (1m) pertaining to the furnishing or selling of accommodations to determine the correct amount of room tax due. A determination under this paragraph shall be provided in writing within 4 years after the due date of the return, unless no return has been filed.

66.0615(2)(b) (b) Enact a schedule of forfeitures, not to exceed 5 percent of the tax under sub. (1m) or par. (c), to be imposed on any person subject to sub. (1m) who fails to comply with a request to inspect and audit the person’s records under par. (a).

66.0615(2)(c) (c) Determine the tax under sub. (1m) according to its best judgment if a person required to make a return fails, neglects or refuses to do so for the amount, in the manner and form and within the time prescribed by the municipality or district.

66.0615(2)(d) (d) Require each person who is subject to par. (c) to pay an amount of taxes that the municipality or district determines to be due under par. (c) plus interest at the rate of 1 percent per month on the unpaid balance. No refund or modification of the payment determined may be granted until the person files a correct room tax return and permits the municipality or district to inspect and audit his or her financial records under par. (a).

66.0615(2)(e) (e) Enact a schedule of forfeitures, not to exceed 25 percent of the room tax due for the previous year under sub. (1m) or par. (c) or $5,000, whichever is less, to be imposed for failure to pay the tax under sub. (1m). This paragraph also applies to a marketplace provider that is required to collect and remit taxes imposed by a municipality under sub. (1m), but that fails to file a return as required in sub. (1r) or pay the required tax.

66.0615(2m) (2m) 

66.0615(2m)(a) (a) To enforce the collection of a room tax imposed by a district under sub. (1m), the district may exchange audit and other information relating to the room tax with the department of revenue.

66.0615(2m)(b) (b) To enforce the collection of a room tax imposed by a municipality under sub. (1m), the municipality may jointly inspect and audit the room tax records of a person subject to sub. (1m) with other municipalities only for the purpose of conducting a joint room tax audit. A municipality may provide audit and other information to the department of revenue, and may exchange audit and other room tax related information with any municipality that took part in conducting the joint audit.

66.0615(3) (3) The municipality shall provide by ordinance and the district shall provide by resolution for the confidentiality of information obtained under subs. (1r) and (2) but shall provide exceptions for persons using the information in the discharge of duties imposed by law or of the duties of their office or by order of a court. The municipality or district may provide for the publishing of statistics classified so as not to disclose the identity of particular returns. The municipality or district shall provide that persons violating ordinances or resolutions enacted under this subsection may be required to forfeit not less than $100 nor more than $500.

66.0615(4) (4) 

66.0615(4)(a) (a) Except as provided in par. (d), annually, on or before May 1, on a form created and provided by the department of revenue, every municipality that imposes a tax under sub. (1m) shall certify and report to the department all of the following:

66.0615(4)(a)1. 1. The amount of room tax revenue collected, and the room tax rate imposed, by the municipality in the previous year.

66.0615(4)(a)2. 2. A detailed accounting of the amounts of such revenue that were forwarded in the previous year for tourism promotion and tourism development, specifying the commission or tourism entity that received the revenue. The detailed accounting shall include expenditures of at least $1,000 made by a commission or a tourism entity.

66.0615(4)(a)3. 3. A list of each member of the commission and each member of the governing body of a tourism entity to which the municipality forwarded room tax revenue in the previous year, and the name of the business entity the member owns, operates, or is employed by, if any.

66.0615(4)(a)4. 4. For a municipality subject to sub. (1m) (dm), the amount of the room tax retained by the municipality in each of the following fiscal years: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014.

66.0615(4)(b) (b) The department of revenue shall collect the reports described in par. (a) and shall make them available to the public.

66.0615(4)(c) (c) The department of revenue may impose a penalty of not more than $3,000 on a municipality that does not submit to the department the reports described in par. (a). A municipality may not use room tax revenue to pay a penalty imposed under this paragraph. The penalty shall be paid to the department of revenue.

66.0615(4)(d) (d) Notwithstanding the requirement in par. (a) (intro.), the information specified in par. (a) 4. may be certified and reported to the department only once if the municipality submits the information not later than May 1, 2022. The department shall make such information available to the public annually in the report described in par. (a) (intro.).

66.0615 History History: 1983 a. 189, 514; 1993 a. 263, 467, 491; 1999 a. 9; 1999 a. 150 ss. 565 to 567; Stats. 1999 s. 66.0615; 2003 a. 203; 2005 a. 135; 2007 a. 20; 2009 a. 2; 2011 a. 18, 32; 2013 a. 20; 2015 a. 55, 60, 301; 2017 a. 59; 2019 a. 10; 2021 a. 55.

66.0615 Annotation A city was authorized to enact a room tax. The gross receipts method was a fair and reasonable way of calculating the tax. Blue Top Motel, Inc. v. City of Stevens Point, 107 Wis. 2d 392, 320 N.W.2d 172 (1982).

66.0615 Annotation Under sub. (1m) (am), this section favors expenditures to construct or improve convention facilities. However, sub. (1m) (am) only addresses when a municipality may impose a room tax rate of greater than eight percent and is irrelevant when the city has not exceeded that maximum. The only restrictions the rest of the statute places on the use of room tax monies are found in sub. (1m) (d), which directs a municipality to spend a certain percentage on tourism promotion and development, which means the promotion and development of travel for recreational, business, or educational purposes. English Manor Bed & Breakfast v. Great Lakes Cos., 2006 WI App 91, 292 Wis. 2d 762, 716 N.W.2d 531, 05-1358.

66.0617 66.0617 Impact fees.

66.0617(1) (1) Definitions. In this section:

66.0617(1)(a) (a) “Capital costs” means the capital costs to construct, expand or improve public facilities, including the cost of land, and including legal, engineering and design costs to construct, expand or improve public facilities, except that not more than 10 percent of capital costs may consist of legal, engineering and design costs unless the municipality can demonstrate that its legal, engineering and design costs which relate directly to the public improvement for which the impact fees were imposed exceed 10 percent of capital costs. “Capital costs” does not include other noncapital costs to construct, expand or improve public facilities, vehicles; or the costs of equipment to construct, expand or improve public facilities.

66.0617(1)(b) (b) “Developer” means a person that constructs or creates a land development.

66.0617(1)(c) (c) “Impact fees” means cash contributions, contributions of land or interests in land or any other items of value that are imposed on a developer by a municipality under this section.

66.0617(1)(d) (d) “Land development” means the construction or modification of improvements to real property that creates additional residential dwelling units within a municipality or that results in nonresidential uses that create a need for new, expanded or improved public facilities within a municipality.

66.0617(1)(e) (e) “Municipality” means a city, village, or town.

66.0617(1)(f) (f) “Public facilities” means all of the following:

66.0617(1)(f)1. 1. Highways as defined in s. 340.01 (22), and other transportation facilities, traffic control devices, facilities for collecting and treating sewage, facilities for collecting and treating storm and surface waters, facilities for pumping, storing, and distributing water, parks, playgrounds, and land for athletic fields, solid waste and recycling facilities, fire protection facilities, law enforcement facilities, emergency medical facilities and libraries. “Public facilities” does not include facilities owned by a school district.

66.0617(1)(f)2. 2. Notwithstanding subd. 1., with regard to impact fees that were first imposed before June 14, 2006, “public facilities” includes other recreational facilities that were substantially completed by June 14, 2006. This subdivision does not apply on or after January 1, 2018.

66.0617(1)(g) (g) “Service area” means a geographic area delineated by a municipality within which there are public facilities.

66.0617(1)(h) (h) “Service standard” means a certain quantity or quality of public facilities relative to a certain number of persons, parcels of land or other appropriate measure, as specified by the municipality.

66.0617(2) (2) General.

66.0617(2)(a) (a) A municipality may enact an ordinance under this section that imposes impact fees on developers to pay for the capital costs that are necessary to accommodate land development.

66.0617(2)(b) (b) Subject to par. (c), this section does not prohibit or limit the authority of a municipality to finance public facilities by any other means authorized by law, except that the amount of an impact fee imposed by a municipality shall be reduced, under sub. (6) (d), to compensate for any other costs of public facilities imposed by the municipality on developers to provide or pay for capital costs.

66.0617(2)(c) (c) Beginning on May 1, 1995, a municipality may impose and collect impact fees only under this section.

66.0617(3) (3) Public hearing; notice. Before enacting an ordinance that imposes impact fees, or amending an existing ordinance that imposes impact fees, a municipality shall hold a public hearing on the proposed ordinance or amendment. Notice of the public hearing shall be published as a class 1 notice under ch. 985, and shall specify where a copy of the proposed ordinance or amendment and the public facilities needs assessment may be obtained.

66.0617(4) (4) Public facilities needs assessment.

66.0617(4)(a) (a) Before enacting an ordinance that imposes impact fees or amending an ordinance that imposes impact fees by revising the amount of the fee or altering the public facilities for which impact fees may be imposed, a municipality shall prepare a needs assessment for the public facilities for which it is anticipated that impact fees may be imposed. The public facilities needs assessment shall include, but not be limited to, the following:

66.0617(4)(a)1. 1. An inventory of existing public facilities, including an identification of any existing deficiencies in the quantity or quality of those public facilities, for which it is anticipated that an impact fee may be imposed.

66.0617(4)(a)2. 2. An identification of the new public facilities, or improvements or expansions of existing public facilities, that will be required because of land development for which it is anticipated that impact fees may be imposed. This identification shall be based on explicitly identified service areas and service standards.

66.0617(4)(a)3. 3. A detailed estimate of the capital costs of providing the new public facilities or the improvements or expansions in existing public facilities identified in subd. 2., including an estimate of the cumulative effect of all proposed and existing impact fees on the availability of affordable housing within the municipality.

66.0617(4)(b) (b) A public facilities needs assessment or revised public facilities needs assessment that is prepared under this subsection shall be available for public inspection and copying in the office of the clerk of the municipality at least 20 days before the hearing under sub. (3).

66.0617(5) (5) Differential fees, impact fee zones.

66.0617(5)(a) (a) An ordinance enacted under this section may impose different impact fees on different types of land development.

66.0617(5)(b) (b) An ordinance enacted under this section may delineate geographically defined zones within the municipality and may impose impact fees on land development in a zone that differ from impact fees imposed on land development in other zones within the municipality. The public facilities needs assessment that is required under sub. (4) shall explicitly identify the differences, such as land development or the need for those public facilities, which justify the differences between zones in the amount of impact fees imposed.

66.0617(6) (6) Standards for impact fees. Impact fees imposed by an ordinance enacted under this section:

66.0617(6)(a) (a) Shall bear a rational relationship to the need for new, expanded or improved public facilities that are required to serve land development.

66.0617(6)(am) (am) May not include amounts for an increase in service capacity greater than the capacity necessary to serve the development for which the fee is imposed.

66.0617(6)(b) (b) May not exceed the proportionate share of the capital costs that are required to serve land development, as compared to existing uses of land within the municipality.

66.0617(6)(c) (c) Shall be based upon actual capital costs or reasonable estimates of capital costs for new, expanded or improved public facilities.

66.0617(6)(d) (d) Shall be reduced to compensate for other capital costs imposed by the municipality with respect to land development to provide or pay for public facilities, including special assessments, special charges, land dedications or fees in lieu of land dedications under ch. 236 or any other items of value.

66.0617(6)(e) (e) Shall be reduced to compensate for moneys received from the federal or state government specifically to provide or pay for the public facilities for which the impact fees are imposed.

66.0617(6)(f) (f) May not include amounts necessary to address existing deficiencies in public facilities.

66.0617(6)(fm) (fm) May not include expenses for operation or maintenance of a public facility.

66.0617(6)(g) (g) Except as provided under this paragraph, shall be payable by the developer or the property owner to the municipality in full upon the issuance of a building permit by the municipality. Except as provided in this paragraph, if the total amount of impact fees due for a development will be more than $75,000, a developer may defer payment of the impact fees for a period of 4 years from the date of the issuance of the building permit or until 6 months before the municipality incurs the costs to construct, expand, or improve the public facilities related to the development for which the fee was imposed, whichever is earlier. If the developer elects to defer payment under this paragraph, the developer shall maintain in force a bond or irrevocable letter of credit in the amount of the unpaid fees executed in the name of the municipality. A developer may not defer payment of impact fees for projects that have been previously approved.

66.0617(7) (7) Low-cost housing. An ordinance enacted under this section may provide for an exemption from, or a reduction in the amount of, impact fees on land development that provides low-cost housing, except that no amount of an impact fee for which an exemption or reduction is provided under this subsection may be shifted to any other development in the land development in which the low-cost housing is located or to any other land development in the municipality.

66.0617(7r) (7r) Impact fee reports. At the time that the municipality collects an impact fee, it shall provide to the developer from which it received the fee an accounting of how the fee will be spent.

66.0617(8) (8) Requirements for impact fee revenues. Revenues from each impact fee that is imposed shall be placed in a separate segregated interest-bearing account and shall be accounted for separately from the other funds of the municipality. Impact fee revenues and interest earned on impact fee revenues may be expended only for the particular capital costs for which the impact fee was imposed, unless the fee is refunded under sub. (9).

66.0617(9) (9) Refund of impact fees. Except as provided in this subsection, impact fees that are not used within 8 years after they are collected to pay the capital costs for which they were imposed shall be refunded to the payer of fees for the property with respect to which the impact fees were imposed, along with any interest that has accumulated, as described in sub. (8). Impact fees that are collected for capital costs related to lift stations or collecting and treating sewage that are not used within 10 years after they are collected to pay the capital costs for which they were imposed, shall be refunded to the payer of fees for the property with respect to which the impact fees were imposed, along with any interest that has accumulated, as described in sub. (8). The 10-year time limit for using impact fees that is specified under this subsection may be extended for 3 years if the municipality adopts a resolution stating that, due to extenuating circumstances or hardship in meeting the 10-year limit, it needs an additional 3 years to use the impact fees that were collected. The resolution shall include detailed written findings that specify the extenuating circumstances or hardship that led to the need to adopt a resolution under this subsection. For purposes of the time limits in this subsection, an impact fee is paid on the date a developer obtains a bond or irrevocable letter of credit in the amount of the unpaid fees executed in the name of the municipality under sub. (6) (g).

66.0617(10) (10) Appeal. A municipality that enacts an impact fee ordinance under this section shall, by ordinance, specify a procedure under which a developer upon whom an impact fee is imposed has the right to contest the amount, collection or use of the impact fee to the governing body of the municipality.

66.0617 History History: 1993 a. 305; 1997 a. 27; 1999 a. 150 s. 524; Stats. 1999 s. 66.0617; 2005 a. 203, 477; 2007 a. 44, 96; 2009 a. 180; 2017 a. 243.

66.0617 Annotation An association of developers had standing to challenge the use of impact fees. As long as individual developers had a personal stake in the controversy, the association could contest the use of impact fees on their behalf. Further, individual developers subject to the impact fees do have the right to bring their own separate challenges. Metropolitan Builders Ass’n of Greater Milwaukee v. Village of Germantown, 2005 WI App 103, 282 Wis. 2d 458, 698 N.W.2d 301, 04-1433.

66.0617 Annotation Sub. (6) allows a municipality to impose impact fees for a general type of facility without committing itself to any particular proposal before charging the fees. The needs assessment must simply contain a good-faith and informed estimate of the sort of costs the municipality expects to incur for the kind of facility it plans to provide. Sub. (9) requires impact fees ordinances to specify only the type of facility for which fees are imposed. A municipality must be allowed flexibility to deal with the contingencies inherent in planning. Metropolitan Builders Ass’n of Greater Milwaukee v. Village of Germantown, 2005 WI App 103, 282 Wis. 2d 458, 698 N.W.2d 301, 04-1433.

66.0617 Annotation Subs. (2) and (6) (b) authorize municipalities to hold developers responsible only for the portion of capital costs whose necessity is attributable to their developments. A municipality cannot expect developers’ money to subsidize the existing residents’ proportionate share of the costs. If impact fees revenues exceed the developers’ proportionate share of the capital costs of a project, the municipality must return those fees to the current owners of the properties for which developers paid the fees. Metropolitan Builders Ass’n of Greater Milwaukee v. Village of Germantown, 2005 WI App 103, 282 Wis. 2d 458, 698 N.W.2d 301, 04-1433.

66.0617 Annotation When the plaintiff home builders association alleged a town enacted an impact fee ordinance that disproportionately imposed the town’s costs on development and the ordinance contained a mechanism for appealing these issues, but the association did not use it, the circuit court did not erroneously exercise its discretion when it concluded the association should have used the ordinance’s appeal process before bringing its claims to court. St. Croix Valley Home Builders Ass’n v. Township of Oak Grove, 2010 WI App 96, 327 Wis. 2d 510, 787 N.W.2d 454, 09-2166.

66.0617 Annotation The primary purpose of a tax is to obtain revenue for the government as opposed to covering the expense of providing certain services or regulation. A “fee” imposed purely for revenue purposes is invalid absent permission from the state to the municipality to exact such a fee. A “fee in lieu of room tax” that did not help the city recoup its investment in a development but rather was a revenue generator for the city that was collected from the owners of condominiums in a specific development who chose not rent their units to the public was imposed without legislative permission and was therefore an illegal tax. Bentivenga v. City of Delavan, 2014 WI App 118, 358 Wis. 2d 610, 856 N.W.2d 546, 14-0137.

66.0617 Annotation Rough Proportionality and Wisconsin’s New Impact Fee Act. Ishikawa. Wis. Law. Mar. 1995.

66.0619 66.0619 Public improvement bonds: issuance.

66.0619(1) (1) A municipality, in addition to any other authority to borrow money and issue its municipal obligations, may borrow money and issue its public improvement bonds to finance the cost of construction or acquisition, including site acquisition, of any revenue-producing public improvement of the municipality. In this section, unless the context or subject matter otherwise requires:

66.0619(1)(a) (a) “Debt service” means the amount of principal, interest and premium due and payable with respect to public improvement bonds.

66.0619(1)(b) (b) “Deficiency” means the amount by which debt service required to be paid in a calendar year exceeds the amount of revenues estimated to be derived from the ownership and operation of the public improvement for the calendar year, after first subtracting from the estimated revenues the estimated cost of paying the expenses of operating and maintaining the public improvement for the calendar year.

66.0619(1)(c) (c) “Municipality” means a county, sanitary district, public inland lake protection and rehabilitation district, town, city or village.

66.0619(1)(d) (d) “Public improvement” means any public improvement which a municipality may lawfully own and operate from which the municipality expects to derive revenues.

66.0619(2) (2) The governing body of the municipality proposing to issue public improvement bonds shall adopt a resolution authorizing their issuance. The resolution shall set forth the amount of bonds authorized, or a sum not to exceed a stated amount, and the purpose for which the bonds are to be issued. The resolution shall prescribe the terms, form and contents of the bonds and other matters that the governing body considers necessary or advisable. The bonds may be in any denomination of not less than $1,000, shall bear interest payable annually or semiannually, shall be payable not later than 20 years from the date of the bonds, at times and places that the governing body determines, and may be subject to redemption prior to maturity on terms and conditions that the governing body determines. The bonds may be issued either payable to bearer with interest coupons attached to the bonds or may be registered under s. 67.09. The bonds may be sold at public competitive sale or by private negotiation. Sections 67.08 and 67.10 apply to public improvement bonds, except insofar as they are in conflict with this section, in which case this section controls.

66.0619(2m) (2m) 

66.0619(2m)(a) (a) A resolution, adopted under sub. (2) by the governing body of a municipality, need not be submitted to the electors of the municipality for approval, unless within 30 days after the resolution is adopted there is filed with the clerk of the municipality a petition, conforming to the requirements of s. 8.40 and requesting a referendum on the resolution, signed by electors numbering at least 10 percent of the votes cast in the municipality for governor at the last general election. A resolution, adopted under sub. (2), may be submitted by the governing body of the municipality to the electors without waiting for the filing of a petition.

66.0619(2m)(b) (b) If a referendum is to be held on a resolution, the municipal governing body shall file the resolution as provided in s. 8.37 and shall direct the municipal clerk to call a special election for the purpose of submitting the resolution to the electors for a referendum on approval or rejection. In lieu of a special election, the municipal governing body may specify that the election be held at the next succeeding spring primary or election or partisan primary or general election.

66.0619(2m)(c) (c) The municipal clerk shall publish a class 2 notice, under ch. 985, containing a statement of the purpose of the referendum, giving the amount of the bonds proposed to be issued and the purpose for which they will be issued, and stating the time and places of holding the election and the hours during which the polls will be open.

66.0619(2m)(d) (d) The referendum shall be held and conducted and the votes cast shall be canvassed as at regular municipal elections and the results certified to the municipal clerk. A majority of all votes cast in the municipality decides the question.

66.0619(3) (3) The reasonable cost and value of any services rendered by the public improvement to the municipality shall be charged against the municipality and shall be paid by it in monthly installments.

66.0619(4) (4) 

66.0619(4)(a) (a) Gross revenues derived from the ownership and operation of the public improvement shall be first pledged to debt service on issued public improvement bonds. When in excess of debt service, the revenues are subject to all of the following requirements set by resolution or ordinance of the governing body fixing:

66.0619(4)(a)1. 1. The proportion of revenues of the public improvement necessary for the reasonable and proper operation and maintenance of the public improvement.

66.0619(4)(a)2. 2. The proportion of revenues necessary for the payment of debt service on the public improvement bonds. The revenues shall be paid into a special fund in the treasury of the municipality known as the “Public Improvement Bond Account”.

66.0619(4)(b) (b) At any time after one year’s operation, the governing body may recompute the proportion of revenues assignable under par. (a) based upon experience of operation.

66.0619(4)(c) (c) All funds on deposit in a public improvement bond account, which are not immediately required for the purposes specified in this section, shall be invested in accordance with s. 66.0605.