Wausau will get more than $1M in additional shared revenue
Here's what area municipalities will get, and who gets left out
Last month I wrote a story about how a city like Wausau would fare under both Evers’ and the GOP’s proposals for additional shared revenue.
Today a deal was signed, in Wausau, that would see the city get nearly $1.2 million in additional shared revenue, a 29.4% increase. The state is allocating $206.9 million to municipalities and an additional $68 million to counties.
Mayor Katie Rosenberg says that the money will help in paying for the 12 additional firefighters the city added to its staff. Prior to that, the Wausau Fire Department hadn’t added any staff since the 1970s, despite call volumes dramatically increasing. They’ve doubled between 2003 and 2022, and are on pace to exceed 7,000 total calls this year.
The Great Resignation: Firefighting
When the first engine pulled up to a garage fire that threatened to spread to the rest of the east side house, it was staffed by two firefighters: An engineer and a lieutenant. If that doesn’t sound very robust, well, it’s not. Ideally there would have been several more firefighters on hand, but when duty calls, firefighters do what they need to do. Wausau FD was no exception. One firefighter got the hose out and managed to train it on the fire, bracing it between his legs to keep the large 2 1/2” hose steady while the other operated the water from the engine. This hose is typically so unwieldy that it takes several people to hold on, as can be seen in later in a video of the scene.
Wausau metro revenue increase breakdown
Here is the total breakdown, via Gov. Evers’ press release:
Villages would get $34.8 million, a 54.8%
Cities would see a bump of $106.5 million, a 20.3% increase
Counties would see an additional $68 million, a 55.4% increase
Some other area municipalities:
Weston: $382,000, a 36.6% increase
Rothschild: $152,000 increase, a 765 increase
Kronenwetter: $220,000, a 90% increase
Schofield: $68,000, a 40% increase
Mosinee: $105,000, a 21% increase
Marathon County: $1.4 million, or a 35% increase
You can look up how much the all municipalities and counties in the state will get here.
A long process
As we shared in our post about the Wisconsin Shared Revenue battle last month, the GOP legislature and Gov. Evers have been going back and forth on this issue for some time. The battle lines seemed to be drawn around rural and urban areas, with small cities such as Wausau or Stevens Point stuck in the middle.
The bill was signed in Wausau, this morning as I write this. Too bad the press release didn’t come through my inbox until after it was signed. Seems like an event both sides of the aisle would want press at.
The bill also boosts funding for the state’s voucher schools, and in a compromise to get the bill signed, Evers reached a deal with area lawmakers to pump an additional $1 billion into the state’s educational system. The Wausonian will keep an eye out for how that impacts both the Wausau and D.C. Everest school districts.
But not ever entity dealing with children will fare well in the next budget.
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