The city of Madison may be facing additional challenges when deciding the 2006 city budget next November after examining Gov. Jim Doyle’s state budget proposal.

City Council President Brenda Konkel, a member on the Board of Estimates, said the combination of state and federal cuts for the city will be hard to handle.

“We’re being asked to do more with less and it’s getting harder and harder,” Konkel said. “We’re used to high-level services, and there is potential that these next cuts could be noticeable to the average citizen.”

Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, also a member on the Board of Estimates, said the city continues to grow, but without help from the state government; Madison will need to raise money through other means.

“We continue to have more and more housing units in Madison, downtown and on the periphery, and our services need to keep up with our rate of growth,” Verveer said. “We need to continue to hire more cops, more firefighters, more street workers to pick up trash and clean the streets with increasingly less money and alternatives to raise money.”

According to a release, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz is also concerned with Doyle’s proposal to restructure parts of the state’s shared revenue program because it may limit economic growth in Madison.

“We cannot be deprived of the tools we need to grow our infrastructure and services for citizens and businesses,” Cieslewicz said. “As the state budget is reviewed in the weeks and months to come, I hope the governor and the legislature will keep this important principle foremost in mind.”

According to Verveer, for the past 10 years state funding has either been cut or frozen. If state funding is reduced, the only alternative for the city is to raise money through property taxes, which will have a negative impact on the citizens of Madison, he added.

“By cutting our ability to raise money, either through a more Draconian Republican method or the governor’s proposed alternative, it presents more challenges to a challenge we already have faced for years now,” Verveer added.

Verveer said Doyle’s proposals are much easier for a city to handle than the Republicans’ property tax proposal. The Expenditure Restraint Program, which used to reward cities for limiting spending, will be modified and reward cities for limiting taxes, according to Doyle’s speech.

“Doyle is proposing a twist at a long-standing program that works well, limiting spending and taxing,” Verveer said.

Every two years, political activists will lobby to the governor in hopes he will make the right decisions for the city. Cieslewicz and others from City Hall will be lobbying the governor and the state legislature in the upcoming months, Verveer added.

Although policies will not completely change, any harmful consequences may be lessened, he added. The state budget is a multiple-month process, Verveer said, and it usually will not pass until the fall.

The state budget will not affect the city until 2006 when the budget process begins and is passed by the City Council in November.