Funding regional transit with a new, dedicated sales tax is already proving unpopular with Kenosha-area lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

“They’re talking about raising taxes, when we’re going into what most experts call an unprecedented recession,” state Sen. Robert Wirch, D-Pleasant Prairie, said Tuesday. “This is a non-starter at this level, at this time.”

Rep. Samantha Kerkman, R-Randall, said she would only support the new sales tax if her constituents approve of it by referendum vote.

The Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Transit Authority recommended the method Monday, as a means to fund bus and rail transit in Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee counties.

To administer this, the authority asked to be turned into a permanent government body. The authority was formed by the Legislature and Gov. Doyle in 2005, to identify a permanent, dedicated funding source for the proposed Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter rail link, and/or other public transit in the three-county area.

The board previously suggested a $15 increase to a $2 fee currently charged on rental car transactions in the region, but some legislators, mostly Republicans, balked.

Wirch, whose fellow Democrats will next year hold the majorities in both the Senate and Assembly, said he still favors the rental car solution.

“I was for that in the last session; I’m for that now,” Wirch said. “That is something that has acceptance up here in Madison, in the Capitol.”

Why a rental car tax rather than a general sales tax?

“You want to spare your own citizens the tax burden, and you obviously want to hit the people that are coming in to visit the state,” Wirch said. “That’s what they do in Florida.”

Kerkman said she would oppose creating a new sales tax during tough economic times, without the voters’ say in a referendum.

She noted that the 0.1 of a cent Milwaukee Brewers stadium tax passed the Legislature in 1995 without citizen support, ultimately costing then-Sen. George Petak, R-Racine, his job in a subsequent recall election.

“That was in good economic times,” Kerkman said. “And now things are very tough, and people don’t have the extra income to be giving.”

Transit authority officials attempting to sell the sales tax note that it would remove the current costs of public transit from the property tax levy, placing the burden on a sales tax that is paid, in part, by out-of-staters.

But Sen. Neal Kedzie, R-Elkhorn, said the returns on transit investment — particularly on commuter rail — remain unknown.

“This is a time to be frugal,” Kedzie said. “What I’m seeing here in this proposal from the RTA doesn’t even begin to respect the inability of taxpayers to be encumbered with larger tax increases and expanded government.”

Wirch said he could not approve of making the transit authority a permanent taxing entity, without further information.

“We’re not opposed to this concept, but we have to have a funding mechanism that makes sense,” Wirch said. “I am absolutely in favor of the RTA. But this backdoor funding approach is problematic.”