Wisconsin Cities Want Presidential Candidates to Pick Up the Tabs for Visits

Tuesday, July 16th, 2024 -- 11:00 AM

(Julius Shieh, Wisconsin Watch) With President Joe Biden and Donald Trump again eying Wisconsin as a crucial presidential election battleground, some cash-strapped municipalities hope their campaigns will pick up the tab for their expensive visits to the state.

According to Julius Shieh with Wisconsin Watch, those include the cities of Green Bay and Eau Claire, where officials said they still haven’t been reimbursed for tens of thousands of dollars in costs related to public safety and operational support during campaign visits dating back to 2016.

On a snowy Tuesday evening in April, Trump made his first visit in four years to Green Bay, delivering a roughly one-hour speech to hundreds of supporters gathered downtown at the KI Convention Center. The city’s costs for the rally totaled nearly $33,400, officials said in a July 2 press release.

The costs stemmed from operational, security and traffic coordination services, the biggest chunk coming in police overtime, and preparing for the risks of welcoming a high-profile candidate, said Diana Ellenbecker, the city’s finance director.

Trump’s arrival at 5 p.m. on a workday “created much more overtime and much more coordination for the bigger crowd,” Ellenbecker said. “There’s just hours and hours and hours involved administratively, besides all the operational needs, to make it a safe event.”

The April rally was the most expensive presidential campaign event Green Bay has hosted without being reimbursed since 2016. Trump’s campaign has refused to reimburse the city for those costs or for nearly $9,400 in police expenses related to an August 2016 rally, city records show.

“When we reached out to the Trump camp, they sent an email that they’re not responsible for paying this bill,” Ellenbecker said.Without reimbursement, the extra rally costs eat into the department reserve funds. “It does have an impact,” Ellenbecker said. “It makes departments look like they’re overspending their budgets because they’re incurring expenses that they didn’t have a revenue source for.”

President Biden has not visited Green Bay this year, but first lady Jill Biden visited the Brown County Public Library in June to promote the president’s health care policies, prompting the city to invoice the Democrat’s campaign nearly $7,000 for police, fire, parking and related costs for an event that was smaller and easier to support than Trump’s rally.

The city received a payment from Biden’s campaign days after its July press release listed the invoice as unpaid, and Ellenbecker called the campaign “proactive” in handling it.

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