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Cities hurt by budget cuts

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In response to Gov. Scott McCallum’s budget announcements, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau released calculations of the potential loss to Madison Wednesday based on the proposed cuts in shared revenue.

The shared revenue program, which gives state aid to local governments across the state, would be phased out over three years under McCallum’s plan to fix the $1.1 billion state budget deficit.

Mike Browne, pressperson for state Senate Majority Leader Chuck Chvala, said Madison should expect to lose over half their allotted shared revenue benefits.

“In the case of the city of Madison, they get $16 million from shared revenue, but under the proposal, 52 percent of that would be cut,” Browne said. “That’s a loss of $8.3 million.”

Fred Ammerman, program specialist for the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, confirmed these numbers and said Dane County, which receives about $5.5 million, will lose its entire share.

However, Ammerman said both the City of Madison and Dane County will not suffer as much as other cities and counties that rely heavily on the shared revenue program.

“They are lucky because a lot of their money comes from other sources,” Ammerman. “There’s a lot more money than just the shared revenue.”

Browne said cuts to city government mean cuts in police and fire services, garbage collection and snow plow funding, as well as other programs and agencies that receive state financial aid.

“A lot of programs are dependent on state aid,” Browne said.

It is unfortunate local government bodies are being asked to shoulder the deficit problem, Browne said.

“Local governments in particular have done their part to hold spending down,” Browne said. “And now the governor has asked them to balance the budget on their backs.” Before McCallum’s proposed budget fix can be implemented, it must be approved by the state legislature. Senate president Fred Risser D-Madison said he anticipates this will be hard to accomplish. “This program is going to be hard to sell to the Legislature because Wisconsin is largely dependent on local constituent support, and people are not interested in losing state funds,” Risser said.