In July of 2018 I blogged:

When the Franklin Common Council meets Tuesday night (July 17) they will almost assuredly vote overwhelmingly to approve sending $1200 to the WI League of Municipalities to (work) on behalf of cities, towns, and villages across the state including Franklin to lobby against the so-called “Dark Store Loophole.”

Essentially supporters of this lobby effort claim big outfits like Walmart aren’t paying their fair share of taxes, so local property owners must pick up the slack.

In reality this is an easy way to float a big fat excuse for big taxing and spending to voters. It’s an easy sell because the bumper sticker is pretty simple: Big companies bad. They don’t pay enough. Your taxes go up.

It’s a complex issue I’ve written extensively about. On the vote to spend money on the lobbying effort, as predicted, the Franklin Common Council voted 5-1 to allocate the $1200. Steve Taylor was the lone no vote.

Now for an update.

Ban Taxpayer Funded Lobbying

Cory Fish, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce’s General Counsel and Director of Tax, Transportation, and Legal Affairs has written a column for Right Wisconsin.

The state legislature should ban the use of taxpayer dollars to pay for contract lobbyists and third-party associations that lobby. Since local governments already have thousands of elected and appointed officials with significant access to legislators and other state officials, this ban would not reduce local governments’ ability to address state-level issues.

Read the entire column here.

And BTW, the so-called “loophole” remains in effect.