Wausau City Council to consider spring 2026 referendum

The Wausau City Council is slated to consider adding a referendum to next spring’s ballot.

At an informal meeting Monday, council members unanimously agreed to recommend considering a public safety referendum next April. It’s aimed at saving twelve firefighter positions from being cut.

 Several members said they received negative feedback from their constituents about the referendum.

District 5 Alder Aaron Griner said it will be difficult to get the community to agree to a tax hike to support the positions.

“As the finance director said, we have enough money to hold us on and keep all of these people employed for another year,” Griner said.

The 12 firefighter-paramedic positions were funded through a federal SAFER grant and pandemic-era ARPA funds, which will run out in December of next year.

This would create a projected annual shortfall of around 1.4 million dollars.

“That is quite a lot of time for us to look at the budget, look to see where we can streamline operations, look where we can address fee schedules for our various other partners and other communities that we work with,” Griner said.

If the referendum fails, the city would need to either fund the positions through the tax levy or eliminate them. The ballot question must be finalized by Jan. 27.

Last week, Mayor Doug Diny released his own plan to keep four to six of the twelve firefighter positions in what he calls a “veto-proof plan.” 

He spoke on his plan at Monday’s meeting.

“In order to keep several of these, as many as possible, and I think we could get closer to six, and with consolidating some other efforts within the city, we could incrementally get there,” Diny said.

The council is scheduled to vote on adding the referendum next week at the same meeting they are expected to vote on the city budget.

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