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.

Dear editor,

While the upcoming Mayoral contest will showcase candidates debating who has the best plan to stem the “maddening” madness permeating our City, the troubling issue of poverty won’t be rigorously discussed, if history repeats itself.

It is madness that  poverty continues to grow in Wausau. Forty-eight percent of fellow Wausonians are now poor or working poor, increasing 2% in the past 2 years. Look for the most toxic areas of town and you will find poor and people of color still concentrated there. Wausau leads the state averages in income gap, prevalence of “extreme” poverty ,and substandard housing.  Our homeless population is increasing. 

This is in the national backdrop of a similar trend. Seven hundred deaths a day are due to poverty. Poverty has now surpassed accidents, strokes, diabetes, and gun violence as the number 4 cause of death for Americans (D.Brady UC Riverside 2023)- and that was before COVID . Then, poor people died at 3-5 times the number of rich people ( Poor People’s Pandemic Report, 2022).

The only interventions that actually countered this trend and moved people out of poverty came with the influx of federal money to support job loss, evictions, loss of Medicaid, expansion of food supplements, and extension of the Child Tax Credit during the surges of COVID.  Now that these interventions are being reversed the poverty numbers are increasing. Prior to COVID, 140 Americans were poor or low income ( Poor People’s Campaign/ National Call for Moral Revival).

Ask any poor or low income person in Wausau what they need most to stabilize their situation and the response is always affordable housing. Housing security has been shown to form the bedrock of stability for one’s job, health, community engagement and general well being.

The City has responded  by committing to a 153 room high end condo project with no affordable units and two much smaller Affordable Housing units including units at market price. Meanwhile they constructed a shelter for the unhoused resulting in fewer total beds than before, and without consideration to severely traumatized individuals. This is while the Police conduct sweeps to eliminate the self-constructed shelters unhoused people feel forced to make for themselves. No alternative living options for the unhoused have been proposed .

A guaranteed income pilot project was voted on but never implemented.

The dysfunctional state of public transportation continues to hinder working people here.

The City responds with delay, defiance, distraction and denial to incidents of environmental contamination.

Wausau is due to receive millions of dollars through the State’s recently passed shared revenue plan. Our current Mayor suggested it be used to decrease property taxes, among other things. This is on the heels of a recent $2 billion income tax break passed in the previous budget. Both policies will only make the rich richer and the poor poorer.

Not prioritizing the needs of half our population is immoral and only adds to inequality and the maddening madness that a continued policy of violence and death produces.

The Wisconsin Poor People’s Campaign calls for poverty to be thoroughly discussed in the upcoming Mayoral debates. Almost half our fellow citizens deserve it. Our whole Community will benefit from it. 

Otherwise, the results of this election will be undemocratic, lacking engagement from a significant portion of our City. Then, as before, the final result will be determined by how many either side is able to rally from their conservative or liberal/progressive base, an outcome proven only to perpetuate the maddening madness of Wausau.

Thank you,

Bruce Grau, Wisconsin Poor People’s Campaign/National Call for Moral Review – Wausau