New shared revenue agreement and how it impacts people in Wausau

WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAW) - Gov. Tony Evers announced that he, Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, and Speaker Robin Vos reached a tentative compromise regarding shared revenue on Thursday, but what does this shared revenue plan mean for people in Wausau?

“Now for K-Eight in the choice schools, it raises it to $9,500 per student, for charter schools it’s $11,000 per student, and it helps public schools which have seen some increases over the past few years,” said Representative Patrick Snyder (R-Schofield).

Rep. Snyder says it will impact things from an educational standpoint. “We are adding over $1 billion in K-12 education, $325 increase per student, per year in the next two years.”

Shared revenue hasn’t changed much over the last 30 years.

“Not only are we going to give these historic increases at 20 percent we kind of make up for what we lacked over the last 10 or 15 years, but now we have tied it in with an increase in sales tax,” Rep. Snyder added.

The plan is set to increase funding to counties, cities, and towns with populations under 110,000 by at least 20 percent.

The money can only be spent on things like fire protection, emergency medical services, public works, and transportation. It will also get rid of the tax on business equipment also known as personal property tax.

Rep. Snyder said it also helps other communities like Schofield, Rothschild, and Kronenwetter. Those towns that are really needing this it can bolster police and fire, it will also go towards roads.

The assistance will help municipalities needing money for improvements and can now set their budgets.

Rep. Snyder continued, “Between that and 125 million were putting into PFAS to help that, I think Wausau and Marathon county and the state are going to be very beneficial.”

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