## Facts

- The Town of Beloit planned the Heron Bay subdivision, using public tax revenues to develop and sell residential lots.
- The Town asserted goals of job creation, tax-base growth, additional single-family housing, and protection of environmentally sensitive lands.
- The Town submitted a proposed subdivision plat to Rock County for approval; the County approved the plat with conditions.
- The Town challenged the County’s authority to impose certain plat conditions through certiorari in circuit court.
- Intervenors (Belle Zyla, Marvin Prothero, and the Green-Rock Audubon Society) separately challenged the Town’s expenditures as violating Wisconsin’s constitutional public purpose doctrine.
- The circuit court ruled against the Town on the public-purpose challenge; the court of appeals reversed, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court granted review.

## Issues

1. Whether Wisconsin statutes authorized the Town to spend public tax monies to develop and sell subdivision property.
2. Whether the Town’s expenditures for the Heron Bay subdivision violated Wisconsin’s constitutional public purpose doctrine.

## Decision

- The Wisconsin Supreme Court affirmed the court of appeals.
- The Town had statutory authority to spend tax revenues to develop and sell lots as part of the subdivision project.
- The Town’s stated objectives—economic development, tax-base expansion, housing provision, and environmental protection—qualified as legitimate public purposes.
- The project’s anticipated profit did not negate a public purpose where the activity served municipal ends and returns flowed to the public.

## Legal Principles

- Municipal actions taken under properly delegated statutory powers are upheld absent a clear statutory prohibition.
- Under the public purpose doctrine, courts give substantial deference to legislative and municipal determinations of public purpose.
- A public expenditure is unconstitutional only if it is clear and palpable that there can be no public benefit.
- Economic-development aims such as job creation and tax-base enhancement may constitute public purposes, even when pursued through projects that resemble proprietary or revenue-generating activity.
- The presence of an expected profit does not, by itself, convert a public project into an impermissible private venture.

## Conclusion

The Wisconsin Supreme Court held that the Town of Beloit could use tax revenues to develop and sell subdivision lots because the Town had statutory authority to undertake the project and its economic, housing, and environmental objectives satisfied Wisconsin’s public purpose doctrine.


Town of Beloit v. County of Rock, 657 N.W.2d 344 (Wis. 2003)