Bruce for Wausau

Anyone who has lived paycheck to paycheck knows the “money shuffle.” It’s the desperate dance of deciding which bill can wait, which creditor is most patient, and how to survive the three days left before payday with zero dollars in the bank. When you’re in the shuffle, there is no emergency fund. A broken fridge or a car repair isn’t just an inconvenience; it’s a catastrophe. While people wag their fingers and tell you to stop buying lattes—even though you haven’t stepped foot in a coffee shop in years—the City of Wausau is now demanding you pay for a “cup of coffee” you didn’t order and can’t afford.
The upcoming referendum is being framed as a choice between higher taxes or firing 12 firefighters. That is a false choice. The real question is: Why are Wausau taxpayers being held hostage by the City Council’s fiscal mismanagement?
The Council ignored a basic rule of economics: “There is no such thing as free money.” When the city accepted grants for these 12 positions, the minutes show a clear understanding that the funding was temporary. The plan was explicit: the money would eventually come from the taxes collected when TIF District #6 was retired. But when that TIF was retired and the money finally became available, the Council moved the goalpost. Instead of following the original plan to use those funds for public safety, they chose to spend the money elsewhere and then ask you to dig deeper into pockets that are already empty.
We shouldn’t have to choose between our neighbors’ livelihoods and our own ability to buy medicine. The city needs to honor its original funding plan and stop the shuffle.
I am running for city council in District 11 because Wausau can do better. It may not be easy, it may not be convenient, but with careful financial controls, I believe the next City Council can use the budgeting process to maintain our level of service without raising taxes above the state cap. Several viable proposals exist to retain our firefighters without adding to your tax burden. We owe it to our residents to exhaust every one of those options before asking an already overtaxed community to “give up just one more cup of coffee.”
Bruce Trueblood
Candidate for Wausau City Council, District 11