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Walker signs Oostburg cheese plant exemption

The first new law of Wisconsin’s new legislative session allows a Sheboygan County cheesemaker to expand.

Governor Scott Walker approved an exemption to a state law that keeps communities from having more than 12-percent of their tax base in a tax incremental financing district.

This exemption allows the Village of Oostburg to give incentives and tax breaks to Masters Gallery Foods.  They will build a 150-thousand square foot cheese packaging and distribution plant.  The new 30-million dollar plant will add 120 jobs within three years.

Wisconsin allows cities and villages to create Tax Incremental Finance (TIF) districts for a specific length of time.  During that time, all property taxes go to the municipality to pay back infrastructure improvements and assist with incentives to bring in new business and jobs.  The law doesn’t allow municipalities to have too much of its land in a TIF district.  Oostburg has been granted an exception to this law.