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CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – Wausau’s city council finalized a referendum earlier this week. In April residents will vote on whether they want to voluntarily raise their property taxes by $1.4-million. Good luck with that. It’s crystal clear to me that this referendum will crash and burn.
And here’s a little secret that the city council doesn’t tell you: the referendum is permanent. It’s not a one-time tax increase. Unlike school referendums, it doesn’t have a sunset date in two or three years. This is a $1.4-million tax increase that continues indefinitely.
The city council discussed briefly whether they should ask for a smaller amount, or if the higher taxes should be for three years only. The three year proposal was reasonable. Another tax increment financing district will expire then, and the city will have access to additional funding then. But neither proposal came up for a vote. You see, in Wausau all taxes must be raised as high as possible for as long as possible. Nothing will quench the desire of city leaders to spend your money.
Remember, the city has already hired the paramedic-firefighters that the referendum would pay for. The city used a one-time COVID grant. That funding runs out this year. Using one-time money for ongoing expenses is dumb. And now the city asks its taxpayers to bail them out from this budgeting foolishness.
The most interesting comments of the night came from alder Lisa Rasmussen, an unapologetic referendum supporter. She says the city finally has a well-staffed fire department. And that is attracting better quality candidates for vacancies within the department. In her own words, “the city finally has a fire department that it can be proud of.”
Well, I never once thought of the city’s fire department as anything less.
What Rasmussen misses is that this isn’t a question of pride. What the city needs is a fire department that taxpayers can afford.
In April, vote “no”.
Chris Conley
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