Kewaunee County shoppers will pay an extra half-penny per dollar on their purchases starting April 1, after the County Board voted 15-4 Tuesday to approve the local sales tax.

The county sales tax was presented as a way offset the loss of the approximately $750,000 a year that Kewaunee County formerly received from the Kewaunee Power Station nuclear plant, which ceased operations in May 2013.

The sales tax ordinance requires that any tax collections in excess of budget forecasts shall be used to increase county fund balances and may not be appropriated for any other purpose in the year they are collected.

Supervisors also included a sunset provision that repeals the tax as of Dec. 31, 2021, unless a future County Board renews it.

Voting for the sales tax resolution were County Board Supervisors Patrick Benes, Mary Ellen Dobbins, Douglas Doell, Virginia Haske, Larry Kirchman, Lee Luft, John Mastalir, Gerald Poppe, Ron Pader, Thomas Romdenne, Linda Sinkula, Linda Teske, Donna Thomas, Charles Wagner and Robert Weidner.

Voting no were Dennis Cravillion, Scott Jahnke, Chris Rasmussen and Kaye Shillin. John Pagel was absent.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press Gazette: Kewaunee County Board passes local sales tax