Wausau’s development spending has tripled in the past five years.
That’s one of the biggest findings The Wausonian found when analyzing spending reports submitted to the state Department of Revenue. The Wausonian pulled the most recently available Department of Revenue Counties and Municipalities spending data for Wausau, Weston, Rothschild, Schofield and Rib Mountain.
There were some other surprises. Schofield spending grew much more than other municipalities on a percentage basis — 43% from 2020 to 2024, the period I studied for this analysis. Wausau, by comparison, grew 30%.
But Wausau is a much bigger operation, and the dollar amount increase in that time period far surpassed any other municipality. Spending increased by $16.69 million from 2020 to 2024.
That it’s more than other municipalities isn’t that surprising — one of the smaller metro villages or cities having a larger dollar amount would be the actual surprise.
What’s surprising is why. Wausau’s increase in spending was largely driven by one category, and it’s one people like to gripe about: Conservation and Development.
Don’t let the title fool you. The vast majority of spending in that category has to do with development, even if conservation is in the name.
How much did it increase? In 2020 the city spent $5.3 million in the category. By 2024 (the latest year the DOR has filed reports for area municipalities) that number grew to $14.2 million, a nearly 150% increase.
Where did that spending come from? The Wausonian decided to find out.
How Wausau increased spending on development
Probably the easiest way to approach this story is to break down the spending by year.