Former supervisor pitches plan to cut county taxes

By Kevin O’Brien

Just one member of the public spoke at Marathon County’s 2025 budget hearing last Friday – a far cry from the 22 people who addressed the county board a year ago.

With no proposals for major funding cuts and a relatively small increase in property taxes for the average homeowner, the only feedback the board received was from former supervisor Dave Baker, Kronenwetter, who suggested a way for the county to shave $1 million off its proposed $60 million tax levy without having to cut staff or services.

Baker, who lost his reelection bid by just one vote in April, called the board’s attention to large increases in various fund balances in recent years, and questioned whether the county was overtaxing its residents.

Under Baker’s proposal, the portion of the property tax levy used to make debt payments would be cut by $1 million, and the amount of sales revenue budgeted for debt service would be increased by the same amount. (A letter to the editor submitted to The Record-Review increased the amount of potential tax savings to $1.6 million.)

Baker’s proposal also involves reducing by $1 million the amount of rollover funds that would normally go into the county’s capital improvements projects in 2027. He said this shouldn’t be a problem since the county has used millions of dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act to “catch up” on capital improvement needs in recent years. Looking ahead, Baker also said that supervisors should think about changing the county’s budget rollover policy and repealing the county’s wheel tax, a $25 per vehicle registration fee used to pay for maintaining roads and bridges, but he acknowledged those ideas may require further discussion.

“I don’t know if there’s realistically enough time left this year to discuss and reach consensus on those two items,” he said.

Compared to budget hearings held in 2022 and 2023, last Friday’s public forum was a decidedly quiet event. Last year, over 20 people showed up, mostly to protest a proposal to cut funding to the county’s library system, and two years ago, several residents voiced objections to a proposed 9.2 percent hike in the tax levy during a period of high inflation.

Three amendments have been proposed for the 2025 budget so far, but two of those are “simply house-keeping” accounting changes that would have no impact on the tax levy or any county services, according to county administrator Lance Leonhard.

Another amendment, proposed by supervisors John Robinson and Stacy Morache, would add $156,000 to the tax levy to pay for limited-term employees who would help clear the county’s backlog of tax-delinquent parcels and surplus properties and redevelop them into housing.

Speaking in favor of the amendment, Robinson said the county recently had to write off $98,000 in past-due taxes and special assessments, because they went back further than 10 years and are no longer collectable under state law. The county has made some progress in getting people to pay their back taxes or seizing their properties, but a recent court decision and changes in state law have made the process more timeconsuming and costly, he said.

At the same time, Robinson said the county will be vacating its offices on Thomas Street and River Drive in Wausau next year, opening up opportunities for redevelopment.

“All of those efforts require staff and support,” he said. “For us to sit there and say ‘We can do all these things with our current workforce’ is ill-founded. We just can’t do it.”

Later in the meeting, supervisor Gayle Marshall questioned whether the extra help could be paid for with the proceeds of property sales, rather than with property taxes. Leonhard confirmed that the money from selling surplus properties – including $60,000 from the recent sale of a former UW parking lot in Wausau – goes into the general fund.

Supervisor Chris Dickinson made several comments about the need to budget tighter and not allow reserve funds to accumulate large balances. Though he made it clear that he was not accusing the county’s administration of doing anything wrong, he did question the trend of adding to fund balances rather than cutting government spending.

“At what point do we just say ‘We don’t need as much money as they’re telling us we need to give them?’” he said.

Supervisors have until this Friday, Nov. 8, to submit further budgets amendments prior to a second public hearing scheduled for Monday, Nov. 11, at 3 p.m. The following day, Nov. 12, the board will meet at 6 p.m. to discuss and adopt the 2025 budget.

Dave Baker