Welcome to Wausau sign. Image courtesy: WAOW TV
CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – The Wausau City Council needed new blood, and it got four new faces after Tuesday’s election.
To those four new faces, I would remind you of this: your friends and neighbors did not send you to city hall to raise their taxes. You are intended to be a brake on city spending, not an accelerant.
Such turnover on the council surely is revolutionary. Mayor Doug Diny, who was a lone, lonely voice to control costs and lower spending, was regularly overruled by the council’s big spenders. Vetos were overridden. Some of the mayor’s proposals weren’t even considered.
Now mayoral vetoes can be upheld. And Doug Diny should reach out and make allies of the new council members.
There’s also a type of defeatist thinking that needs to be stopped. Council president Lisa Rasmussen exemplified it in a letter to the Wausau Pilot and Review before election day. She discussed several “myths” about city government. No, water rates cannot be lowered. No, TID districts can’t be closed to free up more general fund money, No, city debt is not out of control. No, the city’s finances are not spiraling downward. Everything at city hall is the way it is for a reason, and very little can be done to change it.
That’s probably why she wasn’t reelected.
Throwing up your hands and saying ‘there’s nothing we can do’ is wrong. Yes, there are many things the city council and the mayor can do. A good place to start is Mayor Diny’s zero based budgeting proposal. Start the budget process from scratch, not based on what we traditionally spend. Justify each line item. You will surely find savings.
Good luck.
Chris Conley
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