| Venue: | WI SC |
| Facts: | The town of Beloit owns some land; eventually they decide they'd like to sell it, but that falls through. Finally, they decide to develop it themselves. Ostensibly to create jobs, increase the tax base, and promote the orderly growth of single family housing. |
| Posture: | A "motion to intervene" on behalf of some individuals and an environmental group. |
| Issue: | Does the use of tax money to accmoplish these goals violate the public purpose doctrine? |
| Holding: | No. This is fine. |
| Rule: | Ignore whether this was a good idea or a bad idea: instead, ask only whether a public purpose can be reasonably deemed to justify or serve as a basis for the expenditure. |
| Reasoning: | Enhancing the tax base and creating new jobs are legitimate public purposes. Local governments are in the best position to make decisions like this. |
| Dicta: | That which often starts as hope ends in entitlement.
Dissent (Abrahamson): We aren't here just to rubber-stamp expenditures. It's our constitutional duty to examine and assess the legislation. The public purpose doctrine is merely a charade if reciting buzzwords will invoke it. Basically this logic would allow the town to do any potentially profitable thing it wanted. |