Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Lawsuit seeks to block payment to Cabela's
Lawsuit seeks to block payment to Cabela's
Retired businessman opposes tax money for store
By DON BEHM
dbehm@journalsentinel.com
Sept. 29, 2005
West Bend - A retired local business executive filed a lawsuit Thursday in Washington County Circuit Court to block a county payment of $4 million to Cabela's Inc. in exchange for the company's commitment to build an outdoor-gear showroom northwest of Germantown.
Douglas Ziegler, retired chairman of The Ziegler Cos. and a former executive of the West Bend Co. and Dart Industries, said that he challenged County Board approval of the payment because he is opposed to taxpayer subsidies of profitable companies. "The suit I have filed against Washington County has nothing to do with Cabela's," Ziegler said. "It has everything to do with using taxpayer money to subsidize a for-profit company in order to lower its costs on a retail project."
"This is America," he said. "If they want to build a store there, God bless them. But it shouldn't be built with taxpayer dollars."
The County Board earlier this month approved borrowing $4 million and giving the cash to Cabela's as an incentive to build one of its trademark retail showrooms at U.S. Highways 41 and 45 on the border of the Towns of Richfield and Polk. The borrowing would be repaid by the county over 15 years, county officials said at the time.
The board resolution in support of the payment said that it would help pay for Cabela's promised museum-quality wildlife displays. The resolution was adopted on a 15-12 vote.
County Attorney Kim Nass is negotiating an agreement with the company in which the county would become owner of a portion of the building open to all visitors, such as a replica mountain or dioramas with North American and African wildlife taxidermy.
Ziegler's lawsuit claims the county improperly designated the displays both as an educational project and as a public museum in an attempt to justify spending tax dollars on store construction costs.
The lawsuit also alleges county officials changed their subsidy strategy, deciding to call the retail development a regional project with state and local support that would benefit residents beyond Richfield and Polk. The change in strategy came after an earlier $4 million subsidy resolution was defeated in August.
The regional approach required the support of only a majority of supervisors attending the meeting. The earlier borrowing resolution had required a three-fourths majority of the board to be enacted.
Ziegler, in his lawsuit, asks that a circuit judge block the pending county payment until there is a ruling on his legal challenges. The lawsuit asks the judge to reverse the board's action and rule that a retail store's animal display does not constitute a cultural or educational contribution or a public museum under state law.
Nass said Thursday that she had not seen the lawsuit and would not comment on it.
The state statute authorizing regional projects was used for Miller Park in Milwaukee, said Bradley Fulton, a Madison attorney representing Ziegler.
Such designations were intended to be used for regional water or sewer systems or parks, not animal displays in a store, Fulton said. "For the county to say a display inside the store is a regional project is inconsistent with the Legislature's intent," he said. In August, the board approved giving Cabela's $500,000 from the county's property tax reserve fund to pay for educational programs, such as hunter safety classes, at the facility.
