Potential city budget cuts and the future of State Street’s redesign project are expected to highlight discussion at tonight’s City Council meeting.
These two issues were brought to light after Gov. Scott McCallum announced his plan Jan. 22 to cut shared revenue, which gives state aid to local governments, in an effort to fix the state’s $1 billion budget deficit.
Mayor Sue Bauman is expected to brief the council on the budget crisis at the meeting, and City Comptroller Dean Brasser will present a package of budget recommendations, Ryan Mulcahy, assistant to the mayor, said.
Bauman asked all city department heads Friday to cut their budgets by 5 percent and to identify where potential budget savings may occur by Feb. 22, Mulcahy said.
Because Madison operates on a different financial calendar than the state, the city’s already approved budget must be modified to comply with whatever budget cuts result from the state plan expected in May.
“Our goal is to identify $8.3 million in savings in this year’s budget, which was approved last fall,” Mulcahy said.
Bauman also suspended travel and out-of-town conferences and banned spending for fixed assets without mayoral approval.
Mulcahy said the mayor has invited alders to look at the situation and meet with her to talk about the budget problem.
“The aldermen will be part of the process,” Mulcahy said.
While in theory, every city entity is on the table for potential cuts, Ald. Brenda Konkel, District 2, said she expects the council will hear otherwise.
“There are obviously some contracts we’ve already entered into that cannot be cut,” Konkel said. ” I expect we will hear what we actually can cut.”
Due to Madison’s potential budget problems, Konkel plans to ask the council to reconsider an earlier decision to solicit construction drawings for the first phase of the State Street redesign project. She cites future budget cuts as reason to delay the multimillion-dollar project.
“If we have to be cutting $16 million, this is not the time to be proceeding with a project of this magnitude,” Konkel said.
Reconsideration of the decision is already on the council’s agenda, and the discussion may be reopened to yield a vote on whether construction drawings should be solicited. But Mulcahy said no money is tied to the drawings, and he does not expect the council to halt solicitation.
“[Konkel] may have thought that more money was involved,” Mulcahy said. “Bricks and mortar are not at stake, drawings are at stake. We expect the process to go through.”
After soliciting for construction proposals, the council would have to approve anyone hired to do the design work; only then would the city spend money.
But Konkel said it is uncertain the city will possess the funds necessary to finance the redesign project, and she hopes questions about the costs of the project will be answered at tonight’s meeting.
“We’re not going to know anything [about the budget] at the state level until May, which is halfway through our budget year,” Konkel said. “But hopefully we will get a better idea about the process ahead [at the meeting tonight].”
