WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — Voters in Wausau have passed a $1.4 million referendum to fund firefighter and paramedic positions that had previously been paid for with grants and other one-time funds.
Mayor Doug Diny says he’s accepted the result but doesn’t want the city to treat the money as a blank check. “This was very narrowly spoken for, or passed, and doesn’t give us a blank check to go nuts elsewhere [in the budget,] said Diny. Otherwise, if we come to a referendum on another issue, that’s not going to fly,” said Diny.
He says he also doesn’t want this to be the end of the scrutiny of the city budget, referring back to his veto-proof budget amendment proposed last fall. That would have saved eight firefighter and paramedic positions while allowing the city to “dig for more.
“There was room to get partial. And if the referendum had failed, we would not have cut 12 firefighters. We would have saved as many as we could have. Those kind of exercises are still availible to us,” added Diny.
The Mayor also challenged the new Council, which will see four new faces, to maintain fiscal responsibility. That issue was one of the priorities for the last council, and he expects it will be high on the list for the next two years as well.
“You saw a lot of people running on the notion of being fiscally responsible,” he added.
The positions in question were funded through federal grant dollars and COVID-19 relief money, and will run out at the end of this year. The measure passed by 89 votes and will increase taxes by about $36 per $100,000 of assessed value.
Voters in Weston turned down a similar question, which would have added $600,000 to the tax levy to fund six positions in SAFER.
Other topics the Mayor discussed with WSAU’s Mike Leischner include:
Start of video- The Mayor is still somewhat displaced in his office
2:10- New Council
5:40- What’s next on the referendum
10:15- Pothole repair and upcoming road projects
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