WISCONSIN — Four years ago presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton visited Green Bay to drum up support. But city leaders say, they are still waiting to collect nearly 20-thousand dollars from the two campaigns.
When candidates show up to town police overtime goes through the roof and law enforcement knows that it is in the best interest of public safety to step up enforcement. That's why state representative Amanda Stuck has proposed a bill that would require candidates to pay off their current bills before campaigning anywhere in the state. On top of that candidates would also have to pay communities up front, before any candidate would get a permit to visit.
“Honestly I think if a campaign isn't willing to pay our police what they deserve in order for their time here, and then maybe we don't want them here,” says Representative Amanda Stuck.
“I would just encourage campaigns to use the funds that they receive from the people, to pay the people who actually host them in their communities," adds the Green Bay Mayor’s Chief of Staff Celestine Jeffreys.
Green Bay city leaders say in 2016 presidential candidates, Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz, paid their bills. Therefore the city collected on about 50 percent of the money the city was owed from candidates visiting Green Bay.
In the city of Appleton Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland has crunched the numbers to see how much presidential campaign visits cost her community in 2016. She says there was nearly 24-thousand dollars in unpaid bills from that year alone. Van Zeeland added that city leaders told her that trying to collect those payments from candidates, has not been successful for years.
