In a move sure to rattle the cages of the anti-tax crowd, three Milwaukee aldermen are proposing a $20 annual fee to register all vehicles in the City of Milwaukee.

Ald. Bob Bauman, Bob Donovan and Willie Wade want the resulting revenue to be earmarked for transportation projects.

According to the plan, "Revenues collected under this section shall be deposited in an enterprise fund to be called the transportation fund. Revenues in the fund shall be used only to defray city costs for transportation related purposes including but not limited to costs related to the design, construction, operation of streets, alleys, bridges, public way lighting, traffic signs and signals, traffic calming installations, and which may also include special assessments."

A wheel tax has been floated in some form or another nearly every year in the Common Council, usually around budget time.

The Council's Public Works Committee will hear the plan next week.

Age Rage: If a proposal in front of the Common Council goes any further, just being 21 years old might not cut it for people to get into taverns.

A plan by Ald. Jim Bohl, chair of the Licenses Committee, would allow taverns to set their own age limits on patrons. The ordinance allows Class "B" tavern license holders, in the interest of the public good and keeping the general peace, to exercise a predetermined age restriction which must be posted at the establishment.

A Table full of Talk: They couldn't pass the controversial bills separately so why not just throw everything on the table? That seems to be the consensus among state legislative leaders.

Faced with what looks like hours of debate on a budget repair bill and the Great Lakes Compact, Senate Majority leader Russ Decker and Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch are considering merging the two into a single bill.

That doesn't sit well with GOP faithful in the Capitol, however; at least three have sent letters of protest to the leaders.

Combining the bills will force lawmakers to make a difficult choice and perhaps swallow some integrity. For example, a legislator who doesn't like the Great Lakes Compact may still have to vote for it because the budget repair portion of the bill does not raise taxes or raid the transportation fund.

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