Wimberger faces the fire at county board meeting

MARINETTE — As a veteran lawmaker, State Rep. Eric Wimberger, R-De Pere, knows that tough questions and heated debate come with the territory.

Last Tuesday he addressed the Marinette County Board for the final time as a District 30 senator. New legislative mapping in the state has left him without a district. Marinette County will be represented by Mary Felzkowski, R-Tomahawk, in District 12. Wimberger announced Thursday he will seek the District 2 position.

Back to the county board meeting. Wimberger faced plenty of hardball questions. Some right under his chin. Supervisors were passionate, poignant and, at time, perturbed.

Supervisor Mark Anderson, with more than three decades of board experience, expressed concerns over the county budget.

“The Legislature’s stranglehold on the ability of counties to raise revenue--and I’m sure you’re aware of that--has gotten tighter and tighter over those 30-some years,” he said, adding that increased shared revenue softened the blow last year.

Anderson said inflation and a tight labor market has changed the situation “tremendously.”

“I’ve requested and John (Lefebvre) has provided some budget projections,” he said. “Just next year alone, Marinette County is going to see a budget deficit in the range of $3 to $3.8 million.”

He said the county can only raise revenue of about $170,000 on a $60 million-plus budget.

“What have counties done to relieve some of this is turn right to debt,” he said. ”I’m not a big debt guy. I don’t know what the answer is, but you need to understand counties are choking out here. We’re talking 30-40 positions just to balance the budget. Something needs to be done.”

“I’m well aware of it,” Wimberger said. “I think inflation is just going faster than the budget cycle and there will be something called the standard budget adjustment right away next year, which accounts for inflation.”

“That doesn’t answer anything,” Anderson said, raising his voice. “There has to be an answer. Our roads are going to hell; they are going to hell. We need help and we need help NOW.”

Wimberger said the Legislature is trying to get help regarding rural roads, but there still will be issues with labor.

“I don’t know what the answer is other than more people being available for work,” he said.

Supervisor Gale Wanek said many county employees are overworked and underpaid. “It’s not because of our administration,” she said. “We don’t have the money.”

She turned her attention back to Wimberger.

“Let me ask you a question,” she said. “Do you know how far it is from Marinette to Goodman?”

“No, I don’t,” Wimberger replied.

“You don’t and you represent us,” she said. “From Marinette to Goodman, in good weather, is an hour and 45 minutes. We need to have help from the state money-wise. I don’t understand the thinking of the Legislature, period. I don’t understand the thinking of the governor. You’re sitting on a ton of money down there and what are you doing with it?”

Lefebvre told Wimberger the county is repairing one- or two miles of roads annually when it should be repairing about 13 miles annually. He said the county has a little more than 330 miles in roads.

“Sooner or later our roads are going to be worn out,” Lefebvre said. “I mean they’re almost there.”

Lefebvre said he spoke with Sen. Felzkowski and State Rep. Jeff Mursau, R-Crivitz, at a recent listening session. “I asked could we get another tool in our tool box,” he said. “Could we get additional sales tax revenue that you make available to us that we can adopt an additional half percent sales tax. That’s one of the tools you could give us. Leave it up to our county board.”

Supervisor and Board Chairman John Guarisco said every supervisor has constituents whispering in their ear about what they want funded, such as the library, rescue squad, sheriff, etc.

“To be honest with you, they’re all pretty worthy,” he said. “But man, we take a beating. I appreciate you coming and taking your own little beating.”

Wimberger said he thinks the next budget will take rural roads into account, among other things.

“I think that’s going to be coming around to help you guys,” he said. “If we’re able to accomplish that, maybe some of these problems will work out a little bit.”

In another matter, the board discussed being more accessible to the public.

Supervisor Trygve Rhude said every county board member needs to take the initiative to inform people in their district about issues.

“Offer the cities or whoever you represent, to have John Lefebvre come and talk to them,” he said. “I still feel that we as a county board need to do more to get this information out. That may be forming some type of subcommittee. Because this is a big deal.”

Supervisor Stan Gruszysnki agreed. “John (Lefebvre) does a good job, but he shouldn’t have to bear the whole responsibility of collecting information or holding hearings, or otherwise. On a day-to-day basis it’s not a problem, but when you get some of these bigger issues, like roads or the university, it wouldn’t hurt for the county to have a subcommittee.

He suggested the county form a subcommittee that could schedule meetings in other locations and discuss issues with the public.

“It’s our responsibility to get the community engaged in that discussion so that our decisions on this board are informed decisions,” he said. “One of the reasons the public is so frustrated over expenditures, taxes and otherwise, they don’t know really what is going on, whose funding what, why we’re short, why there’s debt and otherwise. Even our state senator doesn’t know it and the state is responsible for the county. I really think we need to get the public involved. It would be to our benefit as elected officials.”