Voter’s Guide: Candidates in District 6 primary address business-related questions

The advocacy committee of the Greater Wausau Chamber of Commerce has invited each of the three candidates in the Wausau City Council District 6 spring primary, which will be held on Tuesday, February 17, to answer these three business-related questions:

Question 1: What is your opinion of the use of TIF as an economic development tool by the city?

Question 2: Wausau businesses consistently cite workforce availability as a top constraint to growth. What role should the City of Wausau play in supporting workforce attraction and retention, including housing availability and childcare access?

Question 3: What would you prioritize to ensure Wausau remains a place where businesses can invest and grow with confidence?

Mario Diaz

  Question 1: What is your opinion of the use of TIF as an economic development tool by the city?

As a former Plant Manager and previous member of this Chamber’s Business Advocacy Committee, I view Tax Increment Financing (TIF) as a powerful investment tool—but one that must be used with precision, not as a blunt instrument.

TIF should be the exception, not the rule. Its appropriate role is to incentivize development in blighted or brownfield areas where projects truly would not otherwise occur. It should not be used to subsidize retail or residential projects that the market would support on its own. When we overuse TIF or keep districts open too long, we risk shifting the tax burden onto existing homeowners and small businesses that don't receive special treatment.

We need clearer limits on the duration of TIF districts and stricter performance metrics for developers. If a project fails to meet its benchmarks, taxpayers should not be left holding the bag. Additionally, we must stop the practice of keeping TIDs open long past their useful life just to siphon revenue for unrelated projects.

All TIF proposals need to have a transparent impact analysis on our general levy. We need to grow our tax base, but we cannot do it by mortgaging our future or picking winners and losers in the local economy.

 

Question 2: Wausau businesses consistently cite workforce availability as a top constraint to growth. What role should the City of Wausau play in supporting workforce attraction and retention, including housing availability and childcare access?

The City’s role is to set the conditions for growth, not to try and manage the market. We cannot subsidize our way out of a workforce shortage; we must build our way out of it by removing barriers.

On housing, local builders consistently report that it is difficult to justify projects right now due to red tape and outdated—or even discretionary—zoning restrictions. The City Council must focus on creating zoning and permitting efficiencies that lower the cost to build. By allowing for smart infill and diverse housing types (such as duplexes or accessory units) in more neighborhoods, we can make housing projects more viable for private developers without requiring direct taxpayer subsidies. A larger supply of in-demand housing is the only long-term solution to affordability.

Regarding retention, we must recognize that a safe, well-run city is our best recruiting tool. People want to live where the streets are paved, the parks are safe, and the taxes are predictable. Prioritizing core services—like public safety and infrastructure maintenance—is essential for retaining young families.

Finally, we need to treat local businesses as customers of City Hall. Whether it is a childcare provider looking to open or expand, or a manufacturer needing a permit, the city’s process should be fast, transparent, and predictable. Time is money, and the city should not be the bottleneck to workforce solutions.

 

Question 3: What would you prioritize to ensure Wausau remains a place where businesses can invest and grow with confidence?

Business confidence is built on predictability and stability. No business can plan for the future if City Hall is constantly shifting priorities, fighting over process, or implementing tax hikes.

My top priority is to bring professional, data-driven management to the City Council. Having managed multimillion-dollar budgets at 3M, I understand that you cannot spend what you do not have. We need to prioritize strong and reliable infrastructure so commerce can flow and operate efficiently.

Secondly, I will champion fiscal discipline. We need to instill a culture of continuous improvement within city departments to find internal efficiencies before asking businesses for more taxes. Wausau already has some of the highest tax rates in the region; we cannot remain competitive if we price ourselves out of the market.

I am running to be a problem solver. I want Wausau to be known as a city where the rules are clear, the budget is balanced, and the government works not as an obstacle, but as a partner to growth.

Kristin Slonski

Question 1: What is your opinion of the use of TIF as an economic development tool by the city?

I believe we need to continue to use TIFs in a thoughtful way because there are just too few other ways for municipalities in Wisconsin to finance economic development. In particular, for environmental remediation, blight reduction, and expanding the stock of affordable housing options, we need to be realistic about the fact that we need to expend public funds to achieve those goals. And we need to be realistic about the fact that there are very few permissible ways for municipalities to raise funds to finance those goals. For me, giving up on something like environmental cleanup is an absolute non-starter. So, if we’re going to do it – and I think we have to – then we need figure out a way to pay for it. TIFs are one of the only ways to raise those funds. The others, like a wheel tax, I feel are too regressive, and impact most those who can afford it least.

Question 2: Wausau businesses consistently cite workforce availability as a top constraint to growth. What role should the City of Wausau play in supporting workforce attraction and retention, including housing availability and childcare access?

I’ve been involved in employee recruitment and retention efforts, and I can say Wausau’s quality of life, beautiful public spaces and events, and stellar schools are a draw to potential workers. But right now, a good deal of our housing stock that young workers can afford – whether for homeownership or to rent - is aging and in need of repair. There are too many workers struggling to afford to be able to live and work in Wausau. Local government definitely has a role to play in increasing safe, stable, affordable housing stock. Potentially setting up a municipal land trust, ensuring that some portion of new rental housing is affordable to people earning the area’s average income, expanding and strengthening community partnerships with organizations like Habitat for Humanity, and helping homeowners afford to make needed repairs are all places where the local government has a role to play in keeping people safely housed. Finding quality affordable childcare is a question that is closely related. Childcare workers, teachers, and youth development specialists are essential to our economic stability. If a person cannot find or afford childcare, then they cannot maintain employment outside of the home. We have to make sure that childcare workers can afford to live in Wausau so that we can make sure that other workers can afford to live in Wausau. That all starts with affordable housing initiatives.

 

Question 3: What would you prioritize to ensure Wausau remains a place where businesses can invest and grow with confidence?

I believe that a safe, securely-housed, educated workforce helps businesses attract and retain employees, which is just as vital to business success as tax breaks, low-interest loans, or government grants. My focus will be on increasing the stock of safe, affordable housing created and retained in neighborhoods intentionally designed to be accessible to employment, childcare, and schools without needing to rely on private vehicles. That means increasing and improving public transportation and neighborhood walkability. Housing and transportation will be my priorities.

 

Keene Winters

Question 1:  What is your opinion of the use of TIF as an economic development tool by the city?

Let me start with some background.  In 1975, the state enacted the Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) Laws to deal with urban blight and the decay of small town main streets.  The concern was that reclaiming inner city lots would always be more costly than building on a clean-and-green spaces at the edge of town.  The goal was to slow urban sprawl and promote urban renewal by providing government-sponsored financial incentives that “equalized” the cost of building downtown with the costs of building on the outskirts of town.

Is that what Wausau has been doing with its TIDs?  It is impossible to say.  The leviathan TIDs, like TID 3's 37-year reign over the downtown or like TID 6 that snakes through the city from the Highways U & K Interchange by Fleet Farm all the way to the Thomas Street Bridge, stopping along the way to deposit the rusty bird sculptures on the Stewart Avenue median are impossible to scrutinize.  The large territories and lengthy time periods make assessing their performance very complicated.  And, without good data, we do not make good decisions.

We need bite-sized TIDs.  TID 9, the Bull Falls Brewery TID, is an example of a smaller, single-project TID.  While TID 9 gets a mixed grade on results, we at least can see what the results are.  Yes, the original brewer failed, in part because he was over extended.  And, the city probably lent him more than it should have.  However, the brewery has a new owner and is back in operation and paying taxes in Wausau and not in Rib Mountain.  A blighted block is now gone.

In addition to doing smaller TIDs, the city should have a more rigorous developer application process that includes greater disclosure of the developer's financial position.

 

Question 2:  Wausau businesses consistently cite workforce availability as a top constraint to growth.  What role should the city play in workforce attraction and retention, including housing availability and childcare access?

I found premise that underlies this question to be unusually disturbing.  It paints a picture of Wausau populated by low-wage workers, who do not make enough to get by and require municipally subsidized housing and child care. Is that our vision of the future.

The core role for municipal government is to provide police protection, fire protection, good roads, trash pick-up and the like.  Additionally, it should provide those services efficiently enough for us to have a business-friendly tax and regulatory climate.  A city government that stays focused on core mission will not outgrow the local private sector that supports it.

Here is the fundamental problem that Wausau faces.  Years of high tax and spend policies are driving people and wealth to the suburbs where there is a substantially lower municipal tax burden.  Of the sixteen cities and villages in Marathon County, Wausau has the ninth highest income per tax return.

With an average income of $68,000, it is hard to see how a family of four with a mortgage and two cars can get by.  This policy is most acutely felt by the Wausau School District, whose declining enrollment problem is exacerbated by flight to the suburbs.

We should be concerned about that $68,000 number ($5,667 per month gross before taxes).  The city's economic development programs should be laser focused on bringing more good-paying jobs to town.

We have a worker shortage.  In a free-market economy, the correct response is for employers to pay more—not to cajole local government to subsidize them or the living costs of their workforce.  We all should know by now that subsidizing the few at the expense of the many is not a workable formula for growth.

 

Question 3:  What would you prioritize to ensure Wausau remains a place where businesses can grow with confidence?

I would prioritize roads, water rates, and property taxes.  What are people talking about?  It is bad roads and high water rates.  Adjusted for inflation, Wausau spends less on roads than it did a decade ago. Besides money, a comprehensive review of materials used and procedures for sealing and repairing roads is needed.  Road conditions are among the first impressions that a community makes, and Wausau is not good.

Wausau is a community that is blessed with abundant, clean water. One of the key problems with water rates is that the city taxes its own water utility, taking 12.5% of user fees off the top.  That should stop.  Where will we get the money?  The city owns a tremendous amount of property for development, and it keeps Tax Incremental Districts (TID) open too long. Sell the land, and close the TIDs.

Milwaukee has positioned itself as a strategic water technology.  Years of brewing collected the expertise in moving, storing, cleaning and preserving liquids, and they now sell that technology to the world.  Let's partner with Milwaukee.  They can sell the water technology, and we can offer those same clients a location with abundant water.

Wausau is one of the highest taxed cities in Wisconsin. It ranks 19^th highest out of 604 cities and villages in Wisconsin for tax rate per thousand dollars of valuation  It makes homes unaffordable.  It jacks up the costs of every commercial activity that takes place on land the city taxes.  Inefficient local government is our biggest handicap.

Otherwise, Wausau is a gem.  It  has short commutes and great schools.  Marathon County is now a premier destination for active sports tourism.  It is a wonderful place to have a home and raise children.  We need a city government that does not shoot us in the foot.