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Presidential campaign events cost Green Bay over $100,000 in 2024. How much has been paid back?

Vivian Barrett   Green Bay Press-Gazette

GREEN BAY - The flood of campaign visits that hit gteater Green Bay throughout 2024 cost the city more than $100,000; and more than half still hasn’t been paid.

As one of the crucial swing states in the general election, Wisconsin was a top priority for political campaigns last year. A number of trips were made specifically to the greater Green Bay, and they took a financial toll on the city's public safety sector.

In total, staffing campaign events with police, fire, EMS, parks, traffic and public works officials cost the city $108,148.91, according to invoices supplied by the city. As of Jan. 3, $58,027 remained unpaid, Deputy Treasurer Brett Vogel said.

The $108,000 reflects only the amount the city of Green Bay and its agencies spent to staff the campaign events. The Brown County Sheriff's Office is compiling invoices for the Press-Gazette, but they were not completed by the time of publication.

The city only bills for campaign events, not official visits of elected officials. Green Bay is also still waiting on a total of $23,885.06 from the Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump campaigns from visits made in 2016.

The Trump-Vance campaign and surrogates

In 2024, President-elect Donald Trump visited the Green Bay area twice. He hosted a rally at the KI Convention Center in April and one at the Resch Center in October.

Trump’s April visit cost the city $33,389.55, with $24,106.71 spent on police, $6,221.17 on fire and EMS, $1,222.18 on the Department of Public Works and $1,839.49 on parking and traffic.

The president-elect’s October visit was less expensive, costing the city $19,688.84. In that invoice, $13,200.80 was spent on police and $6,488.04 on fire and EMS. Trump landed and held a rally in the village of Ashwaubenon. The Trump campaign has not paid either invoice as of Jan. 3, Vogel said.

Vice President-elect JD Vance also visited Green Bay in October ahead of Packers game on his way to a rally in Waukesha. Even Vance’s casual tailgate visit cost the city thousands; a total of $2,804.92 was spent between police, fire, EMS and the parks department.

Green Bay also spent $321.27 supplying police dogs for Vance’s August visit to an AmeriLux distribution center warehouse in De Pere. Both invoices for Vance events remain unpaid as of Jan. 3.

Overall, Green Bay incurred $56,204.58 in public safety costs from Trump campaign events in 2024, and it hasn’t been paid back a cent.

The Harris-Walz campaign and surrogates

Vice President Kamala Harris only visited the Green Bay area once in 2024 and hosted a rally at the Resch Expo in October in Ashwaubenon. The event cost the city $8,371.98 in public safety resources.

The city spent $5,928.47 on police and $2,443.51 on fire and EMS. Green Bay has been paid for this event, Vogel said.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, also visited Green Bay in October. His event cost the city $34,019.29, with over $27,000 spent on police.

The city spent $5,389.65 for fire and EMS, $629.21 for the public works department, $521.95 for parking and traffic and $295.43 for the parks department for Walz's event. Green Bay has been reimbursed for this event.

Green Bay also incurred costs from the candidates’ visits to other parts of the state.

In November, Harris visited held a rally in Milwaukee and Walz visited Stevens Point. Green Bay supplied police dog units to both events, costing the city $1,043.29 total.

The Harris campaign has not paid Green Bay for either invoice as of Jan. 3.

Campaign surrogates visited the area four times this year; first lady Jill Biden visited in June, second gentleman Doug Emhoff made a stop in Wausau in July, Minnesota first lady Gwen Walz scheduled a visit in October but canceled due to a travel delay and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg visited in October.

The city spent $6,898.58 in public safety resources for Biden’s visit and $831.51 for Buttigieg’s stop. Both invoices were paid. However, Green Bay still has not been paid the $635.23 spent on Emhoff's visit or the $144.45 spent to staff Gwen Walz’s event.

In total, Harris-Walz campaign events this year cost Green Bay $51,944.33. As of Jan. 3, the city has been paid back for approximately 96% of those expenses, or $50,121.36.

Outstanding invoices from 2016

The $58,027 that Green Bay is waiting for from the 2024 events is not the city’s only campaign-related financial concern. The city is still out $23,885.06 from events held eight years ago.

In July, the city announced the Clinton, Sanders, Trump and Biden campaigns owed over $64,000 for public safety services provided at three events in 2016 and two in 2024; Trump’s April rally; and Jill Biden’s June visit. The Biden campaign paid the city after receiving the mayor’s notice.

The invoices from all three 2016 events remain unpaid as of Jan. 3. Here is a look at the events and the invoices:

Between the outstanding invoices from 2016 and the unpaid invoices from this year, there is $81,912.06 that remains unpaid to Green Bay.

The lack of reimbursement is 'really frustrating'

Getting reimbursed by visitors "isn't too much to ask," Mayor Eric Genrich said, when the city does everything it can to protect visitors and attendees. The police and fire departments follow every Secret Service recommendation and often add their own procedures on top, he said.

"For that not to be recognized or appreciated in the form of reimbursement is really frustrating," Genrich said.

Ultimately, it falls on the taxpayers when campaigns don't pay, he said. The city tried to be more transparent leading into the election cycle, hoping for more cooperation with the campaigns, which succeeded in some cases but failed in others.

At this point, reimbursement appears to be at a standstill, he said. There isn't much the city can do besides asking the campaigns, again, to pay.

Moving up to the federal level is the next step, Genrich said. There could be a role for the federal government to play in ensuring communities like Green Bay are able to fund the busy election cycle that is bound to come to swing states.

If the government could step in and fund some of the expenses cities accrue, especially from campaigns that require Secret Service and therefore additional security recommendations for the city, that would help, Genrich said.

"We're going to try the transparency path again and and see if we can get better cooperation that way," Genrich said. "But the other piece of it could be having some of these conversations early on with some of our federal representation … to just make the case that we have very limited resources here. And if you as campaigns are not reimbursing us, then we have less ability."

Vivian Barrett is the public safety reporter for the Green Bay Press-Gazette. You can reach her at vmbarrett@greenbay.gannett.com or (920) 431-8314. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @vivianbarrett_.

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