#VoteKeeneWinters

Is It Too Soon to Talk about the Next Referendum to Increase Taxes? Surprisingly, No. The groundwork is already being laid for next “fiscal crisis.” The 2026 budget puts the city’s Motor Pool Fund on the road to bankruptcy. From there, it is not hard to imagine seeing first responders being sent throughout the city to beg for a tax increase to replace outdated police cruisers and ambulances. In what appears to be an intentional disregard of the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) Best Practices, the city uses its Motor Pool Fund to subsidize departmental budgets and then issues bonds and defers replacements to cover the deficits in the Motor Pool Fund. Here is how it is explained in the current city budget on page 217: As an internal service fund, the objective [of the Motor Pool Fund] is to [accurately and fairly] allocate the costs of fleet operations to the departments utilizing fleet and fleet operations. [In 2020,] the city retained the Mercury Associates to examin...

  Why Vote “ No ” on the Upcoming City Referendum to Increase Taxes? Because city hall needs to hear “ NO !”  It is what is necessary to change the culture at city hall.  And, you can rest assured that the city is not going to fire 12 first responders if the referendum fails. Truth be told, there are seven members of the current city council who are always chomping at the bit to spend more money. As a cudgel to get their way, these alders—working with members of the staff—have fabricated a story-line and a faux fiscal crisis to con you into raising your taxes by  $1.4 million .   Here is how it was done. It started in 2023 by using one-time grant funds to hire 12 firefighters.  Everyone knew the grant money would run out after 2026.    Did city hall take steps to permanently fund some or all of the 12 positions in the 2024 budget?   NO . Did city hall take steps to permanently fund some or all of the 12 positions in the 2025 bu...

  WAUSAU FRIDAY FACTS #4 Did “Bad” City Policy Hurt the Wausau School District? Yes, the evidence suggest it does.   And that should not be a surprise. The city's policy on Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) as a revenue capture tool takes away school district tax dollars. In addition, the city's relentless pursuit of higher taxes has likely played a key role in the defeat of the school district's 2025 referendum and in aggravating the district's declining enrollment. In fact, our schools may be the canary in the coal mine when it comes to the city's bad fiscal policy. TIF laws allow the city to take tax dollars from the schools, the county and the technical college and, in theory, invest the money in ways that grow the tax bases for all.  The problem has been that the city has not been a good steward of those dollars.  It has not been investing wisely. The city has also designed multi-project TIF districts to be open for decades, rather than ones that complete a s...

  WAUSAU FRIDAY FACTS #2 Would You Use Your Credit Card to Pay Your Mortgage? Clearly, it is a bad idea.  Your total debt does not go down, and interest continues. Until you can pay down that mortgage out of your monthly household budget, your financial position will not improve.   So, why does the City of Wausau issue debt to pay for its annual operating costs?    The simple—yet astounding—answer is that city hall can raise your taxes more to pay debt than it can to pay operating expenses.  So, the city chooses to use debt financing even when it is more expensive and inappropriate.   An example might help.  Every year, the city issues about $3.5 million in 10-years general obligation bonds and uses the money for road repairs and construction.  Then it taxes its citizens to fund principal and interest payments on all of the outstanding bonds from the past ten years.  Because the citizens' tax dollars are nominally going to “pay debt” and...

WAUSAU FRIDAY FACTS #3 Did You Know that the Wausau School District and Marathon County have delivered significant tax savings over the past fifteen years? Probably not.   It is unlikely that you would not have noticed, given the total on your property tax bill.  Why?  Because the city has raised its taxes so much that it has offset the savings. At any given time, the City of Wausau, the Wausau School District and Marathon County account for about 95% of city residents' tax bills. Growth, development, and inflation all raise the property tax base, creating opportunities to lower the mill rate periodically and still take-in more money. Here is the fifteen year history: As you can see, the schools and the county have lowered your tax rate four times for every one time the city council has done so.  What does this add up to?  Of course, individual circumstances vary, but a simple example may be helpful.  Say you owned a house in Wausau that was worth $160,000 ...

WAUSAU FRIDAY FACTS #1 Did you know that the City of Wausau taxes its own water utility? Yes, it does, and the tax is pretty hefty! According to the 2026 city budget (page 229), the Wausau water utility is projected to collect $12,714,400 in fees from users in 2026. Then, it has to turn around and pay a tax to the City of Wausau of $1,590,000. In 2023, water bills increased approximately 63% in Wausau. We were told it was for the new water treatment plant. However, city officials neglected to tell us that not all of the money was going to the utility. One in eight dollars that you pay for water is simply given to the city to use for other purposes. It is an un-itemized, hidden tax in your water bill. It is also a significant tax. The city has essentially imposed a 12.5% sales tax on the water that you must buy from its monopoly. That is a lot. Technically, this internal transfer is called a PILOT payment or payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT). It is a state law that allows municipalities ...