An accountant working for his family’s public accounting firm is trying to unseat veteran Washington County Board Supervisor Peter Sorce in the April 1 nonpartisan election.
Sorce, 69, who represents District 28, central Germantown, has been on the County Board since 2006.
“I do not like the way the current County Board is wastefully spending the taxpayers’ money,” Broesch stated in a written response to questions from the Daily News. “I want to represent my District 28, with a fresh new perspective of common sense, and American values, while maintaining cost effective, prompt, high quality services for all Washington County citizens.”
Sorce has a different take on the county’s finances.
“Everything is running well. We’re one of only six counties in the black in the state,” he said. Wisconsin has 72 counties.
“We’ve been able to keep real estate taxes down,” he said. He pointed out that the county budget was trimmed by $1 million last year.
“We do watch our spending. But we need to watch it more,” Sorce said.
Sorce cited his 12 years of experience on the County Board working on such committees as chairman of Administrative Services, which handles personnel and facility matters, Planning, Conservation and Parks, Land Conservation, and Joint Tax Review Board.
One issue Sorce said he is keeping an eye on is the finances of the Washington County Fair Park and Convention Center, which is receiving county support. “We want Fair Park to run for itself,” he said. “It’s looking good. It’s getting better every year.”
In the last few years, Gov. Scott Walker has appointed Sorce to three state committees, he pointed out, Medical Mediation, Public Records and Policy, which has provided contacts in Madison that have benefitted the county.
“I really love my job,” Sorce said, “and I want to continue. You learn something every day.” Broesch said he would apply his accounting background to rein in county spending. He said he would vote against spending $200,000 on a heated bathroom for Glacier Hills County Park, a project that was removed from the county’s 2014 capital improvement projects list.
“I would not be voting yes to increase the tax levy,” Boesch said. He’d also like to see less sales tax revenue used to pay for capital improvement projects.