Dear editor,
You recently published an article covering answers to questions that were asked of (Marathon) County Board candidates.
I have been working extremely hard reaching out to the many people of my district. With the various news stations that have reached out to me there was some confusion as to what questions were sent where. So I was not able to get these to the people within the allotted timeline, but I still would like for that information to be available to the public for review. Below are my answers to those questions.
Age: 18
Occupation A: Convalescent care provider
Occupation B: Wisconsin and Minnesota state chairwoman, recruitment director, and chapter development lead
Prior political experience, if any: For close to three years, I have been directly involved in regional youth outreach opportunities as a political volunteer and influencer after graduating early from Mosinee High (School). Just before my 17th birthday I became the youngest person to ever be hired by Young Americans for Liberty. I excelled at tackling recruitment and chapter development in locations across the Midwest and I was soon offered the position of state chairwoman for Wisconsin Operations. Though a challenging position, I accepted, and became the youngest to hold this position in the organization’s history … another milestone. Within months, Minnesota was also added to my responsibilities after performing at a high level and I continue my work with YAL presently in both states. I also attend every school board and county board meeting that I can and work with several other local, community-oriented groups.
What are the three most pressing issues in your district, and how would you solve them?
Many important issues persist and I will not limit myself to issues only in District 2 because the most pressing issues we face are intertwined with other districts. With this in mind:
-Substance abuse and further development of alternatives to incarceration for lesser offenders, while identifying factors within the district and county that contribute to increased risk of substance abuse and mitigating.
-Addressing the PFAS detected in the water supply and cooperating with state and federal assets to immediately gather data, research potential health hazards that may develop, identify areas of greatest risk and mitigate potential harm proactively.
-Addressing workforce shortages, lingering lockdown induced market shortfalls and unemployment by creating a more friendly space for commerce and industry to thrive. Potentially, we should look into exploring acceptable rezoning, lifting or easing of stifling regulations, and, most importantly, considering timetable of relaxed tax burden on small businesses and improvements/expansions of existing integral industry and job providers. Of course, this would no doubt lead to lost revenue, but budgetary restraint and application of available ARPA funds should be enough to offset. In this way we can allow locally owned businesses, small business owners, and key established industry a bit of breathing room to recover from the lingering effects of lockdowns. Only massive corporations, such as Amazon, Microsoft and Walmart, were able to adapt and prosper in such an environment, posting record profits. Only vaccine manufacturers performed better in this new normal quasicommand economy than these examples and for obvious reasons. These are also the same conglomerates that have pushed hardest for automation and other practices that add to workforce burdens. Many businesses that are locally owned suffered drastically, and should be the focus in any recovery while using funds that theoretically were meant for such reasons.
-Addressing waning fiscal responsibility by investigating lingering budget issues. Included in this effort is finding out how $27 million can go missing from local budgets as recently reported in local media.
-Move on from the instability divisiveness and sensationalism of the last few years by returning the county board’s focus to the local everyday issues that it should be locked upon. No more chasing national agendas that are far beyond the intended scope, budget and intention of local government.
These are simple bullet points and brief details about a variety of issues impacting us all. As for a more detailed plan of action for each issue, if one is to be honest, it is impossible to say for any candidate at this point. Many factors are involved in the democratic process and to lay out specifics now is to discount that fact and makes assumptions that force a candidate to be far to rigid to be effective. The fact is, with any issue the board is addressing, I intend to be a conduit for information from all sources. Whether that be community input, expert opinions, conversations with other board members and, without fail, the constitution. These are all angles that are most valuable when formulating the response and considering all these one may remain flexible, able to compromise, and willing to take into account opinions and solutions that they might not have been aware of.
In short, no one knows everything.
Destiny Goretski, candidate for Marathon County Board District 2
Candidates Goretski and Ann Lemmer will face off in a race for the Marathon County Board District 2 seat in the spring election on April 5. Incumbent Jenifer Bizzotto is not seeking reelection.
Editor’s note: Wausau Pilot & Review gladly publishes commentary from readers, residents and candidates for local offices. The views of readers and columnists are independent of this newspaper and do not necessarily reflect the views of Wausau Pilot & Review. To submit, email [email protected] or mail to 500 N. Third St., Suite 208-8, Wausau, Wis. 54403.
