Wausau City Hall. MWC photo by Mike Leischner
CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – There are two ways to get more money into Wausau’s city coffers. You can raise taxes. Or you can grow the value of the city’s grand list.
We, the taxpayers of Wausau, need to make raising taxes politically impossible. That means voting ‘no’ on referenda. That means holding the city council and future mayors accountable for proposals that raise taxes.
Unfortunately, raising taxes has been the easier of the two choices.
Raising the value of the grand list is hard. It involves getting more builders to build things here. At market rate. (Giving a developer a $750,000 loan, as we are doing with the 11 Scott Street project – takes money from the taxpayers. Now if the developer only went to a bank to borrow the money…)
But under current conditions, why would anyone want to build in Wausau? If you are a manufacturing operation, you wouldn’t even consider putting a factory here. If your manufacturing process involves using water, we have the most expensive water rates in the state. Our property taxes are high. It’s no wonder Amazon built its new warehouse in Weston. Eastbay packed up for Texas, where land is plentiful and taxes are lower.
Anyone who wants to build a new house would more likely build just outside of the city limits. The cost of putting in your own well and septic is more than offset by the property taxes you won’t be paying.
As another budget cycle is in full swing, it’s time for the taxpayers to be heard from. The taxable property on the grand list is the exact amount the city has to spend. If that’s not enough, cut things or grow the list. Forget about an annual property tax increase. The taxpayers are tapped out.
Chris Conley
Comments