Economic and political pundits alike have looked into cameras and spoken into recorders countless times the past few weeks, chronicling America’s current financial crisis and documenting every blow in the battle between Main Street and Wall Street.
On the frontlines stand Madison city officials, left to crunch the numbers and struggle to squeeze every benefit possible from the shallow pockets of the tightest budgets in years.
Like most municipalities across the country, the city of Madison is expected to take in less revenue in 2009, thereby requiring budgetary cuts based on last year’s financial intake.
Soaring fuel costs coupled with projected decreases in revenue from countless outlets has led to what Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz is calling “the toughest budget” he has faced since becoming mayor in 2003.
Doing More With Less
Agencies across the board have to work together proposing funding cuts to aid the mayor in his effort to create a budget that maintains basic services without drastically raising property taxes.
The Madison Board of Estimates has been poring over the 2009 city budget since last week, suggesting cuts and recommending amendments in hopes of making the most out of less cash.
Each of the city’s 34 agencies were required to submit 5 percent operating budget reduction proposals to Cieslewicz as he drafted his 2009 budget proposal.
The actual funding allotted to each agency remains undecided until a budget is passed in November.
“This isn’t a budget that we were able to do many new things in,” Cieslewicz said. “This is a budget where we struggled just to maintain our same level of services.”
Large cuts include reducing large-item trash pickup from a weekly to biweekly basis and eliminating two full-time and one part-time vacant position in the Building Inspection Division.
Despite a few large slashes, Cieslewicz said this would require many agencies to tighten their belts just a notch or two, though “no cut is too small.”
“There are no deep cuts in any one service,” he said. “We tried to spread out the pain as much as we could, and we made 50 cuts totaling about $1.5 million.”
The recent plunge in the stock market is partially to blame for the decrease in available cash. When the economy is slow, Madison City Treasurer Dave Gawenda said, interest rates are lowered.
At the end of October, the city of Madison and the Madison Metropolitan School District held a combined total of $247 million in government securities, money market instruments, Certificates of Deposit and both corporate and government bonds.
The city uses interest off of these investments to assist in funding budget expenditures.
“We have lower interest rates, which led to a corresponding drop in the amount of money we make off of the investments,” Gawenda said.
Losses in city revenue led Cieslewicz to approve a $154,935 cut to the Building Inspection Division, which formerly funded inspector and graffiti-enforcement positions.
Director of the Building Inspection Division in the Department of Planning, Community and Economic Development, George Hank said the downturn in the economy is cause for a sharp decline in building, making the positions unnecessary.
The number of new homes being constructed is down from approximately 900 in 2002 to 200 in 2008, Hank said. Because of the huge decrease in levels of new building, the New Construction Inspector position has free time to act as graffiti enforcement, he added.
Even with the large percentage of renters living in his district, Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said he would accept this cut.
“In past years, I have offered amendments for building inspectors,” he said. But given the state of the economy, Verveer added he “cannot see offering budget amendments to add new building inspectors.”
While Cieslewicz said he expects the budget to pass through the BOE with few amendments, he fears the 50-cent Madison Metro fare increase may be a point of contention.
“It helps to allow us increased services, security at transfer points … and increases our program to help poor people afford bus fare,” Cieslewicz said.
The new fare will not directly affect University of Wisconsin students who may obtain a free bus pass through the Associated Students of Madison, he added.
With less cash and more cuts, Cieslewicz said the economic crunch forced him to focus on priorities when drafting the 2009 budget.
“My main concern is that the fundamentals of the budget don’t change,” he said.
It Comes With the Territory
Assigned with the responsibility of questioning all the tough decisions made by the mayor is the City Council, which now faces the challenge of crafting a document that will satisfy as many constituents as possible.
According to Ald. Robbie Webber, District 5, the most difficult part of passing the city budget is getting so many different voices to agree on so many different issues, regardless of the economic situation.
“There are always contentious issues,” Webber added. “Something one person, one group thinks isn’t a big deal, others will say it’s a huge deal.”
Crafting a budget is an annual task for the city, beginning in June when the mayor begins to meet with the heads of all the city departments to discuss their budget requests. This year, the ordeal is scheduled to end in the middle of November, when the City Council will likely approve a version and the mayor will sign off on it.
For the six alders on the Board of Estimates, the ordeal of balancing constituents’ needs with limited supplies is especially draining, according to Verveer, who serves on the board.
After two sessions last Monday and Tuesday that lasted more than five hours each where the Board of Estimates members questioned the heads of all the city departments, they must individually analyze the data and propose their individual amendments to the budget by next Tuesday.
This year, Verveer said, there are a number of contentious issues that may cause a lot of debate, namely the 50-cent bus fare increase and the lack of cost-of-living increases in the funding for community services.
According to Verveer, the lack of funds may result in less amendment proposals and less debate because “we’re restraining ourselves from offering more bold and new programs because we know how tight the budget is this year.”
But the move may end up having the opposite effect, as “some think the mayor cut too much in the budget.”
Cieslewicz said one of the problems the City Council has had with passing a budget in recent years has had to do with council members trying to add amendments for specific community services they favor. This year he has asked the City Council to approve a single amount for community services as a whole and then allocate specific quantities later.
“I’m hoping that this will make the process more objective and less political because alders won’t be tempted to put in a budget amendment to help one particular agency. They could only increase the overall amount,” Cieslewicz said.
After the budget containing approved amendments passes through the Board of Estimates, it must go through the entire City Council, who is given up to three days to debate and approve the budget in what Verveer described as “marathon budget sessions.”
Starting Nov. 11, the council will begin their deliberations, hearing public testimonies and proposing and debating new amendments. With a tight deadline, the immense scope of the city budget presents a challenge for the entire council to digest in just three nights.
Verveer said the third night of the budget debate last year lasted from 7 p.m. until 6:30 the next morning, adding he only had enough time afterward to go home, change his clothes and make it to court within an hour or two to serve as a Dane County assistant district attorney.
“It’s fatiguing, there’s no doubt about it, but it goes with the territory,” Verveer said. “Hour after hour after hour of debates on three separate nights — most of us have day jobs to go to the next morning.”
Webber said while she has a “pretty flexible schedule” because she is self-employed and has no family, others have full-time jobs, young kids and spouses who also work full-time.
“I personally don’t know how some people do it,” she added.
According to Webber, one thing most people do not realize about the city budget is how difficult the decisions they have to make are.
“Everybody has an idea what the city should be spending money on, but nobody can give me an idea what we should cut,” Webber said. “And nobody wants their taxes to go up.”
With no clear end to the financial crisis in sight and the city budget process just beginning, Cieslewicz said Madison residents can be assured their city will stay committed to low taxes and providing basic services.