By Shereen Siewert
Wausau Mayor Katie Rosenberg will seek a second term in office, according to an announcement made this week on social media and on a radio program.
Rosenberg appeared Thursday on As Goes Wisconsin, a podcast and radio show that airs across the Civic Media Network. In an interview with host Kristin Brey, Rosenberg confirmed her intention. Brey asked Rosenberg about her plans for 2024 after seeing a post on the mayor’s private Instagram page.
Rosenberg, on the program, said the last three years has been challenging, but she made the decision after talking with mayors facing similar challenges and with members of her family.
“We’re doing it,” she told Brey.
Running on a platform that relied in part on her approach to tackle the city’s growing debt problems, Rosenberg defeated former mayor Robert Mielke in April 2020 by a 52-47 percent margin.
During Meilke’s tenure, debt doubled in Wausau, prompting Rosenberg to call for a multi-pronged approach to fix. She specifically called out a Thomas Street reconstruction project as an “expensive example of noncompliance” for losing federal finding, as well as better approaches to tax increment financing and public-private partnerships.
But debt continues to be front and center on taxpayers’ minds in Wausau.
“City debt is a big issue,” said Keene Winters, in an opinion piece published Aug. 15. “Up until seven years ago, it had been routinely around $50 million in any given year. Now, it is likely around $225 million. Today, debt service payments are the second largest expense item in the city budget, behind the police department and ahead of the fire department and all other functions.”
Rosenberg told Wausau Pilot & Review she is not actively campaigning now but wanted to let friends know of her plans for the future.
Appearing on Thursday’s radio program, Rosenberg said the biggest surprise of her tenure so far was the city’s discovery of PFAS in all six of the city’s wells. Some officials were aware that the city would need to address toxic chemicals in drinking water as early as 2019, while a new treatment facility was being planed and before Rosenberg’s 2020 election win, but did not inform the public. That resulted in millions of additional technology necessary for the project.
So far, no other candidates have come forward to announce they will challenge Rosenberg. Candidates interested in running for office in Wausau can find more information here. All Council seats are also up for re-election in April 2024.
