Ouch. That’ll teach the poor folks in Milwaukee County that cars are only for rich people like Abele.

A $60 vehicle registration fee, or wheel tax, is needed beginning in 2017 to help pay for Milwaukee County’s bus transit system and costs of repairing county highways and parkways, County Executive Chris Abele said Thursday.

The new fee would be a dedicated source of funding for transportation and generate around $27.1 million a year, Abele told reporters at the courthouse.

The county fee would be paid on top of the state’s $75 registration fee for vehicle owners, for a total of $135. City of Milwaukee vehicle owners already pay a separate wheel tax of $20 so the total for city owners would become $155.

After several good years of Abele governing mostly like a fiscal conservative despite being a liberal, he appears to be pivoting rather strongly to the left. Remember that he was challenged from the Left in his last election and the Democratic Party insiders really dislike him. I suspect that he is trying to shore up support from the liberal base of the Democratic Party before running for governor in 2018.