As council members who represent a large number of students, we take offense at The Badger Herald’s claims that we have acted against the best interests of our constituents by voting to delay the State Street Design Project and that we need to be held accountable (“State Street Shenanigans” — 2/6/02).
Considering that the Herald supported the tuition hike last year with the following words, these accusations smack of irony: “UW still a good deal for students. If it hasn’t already, the complaining is due to start any minute now.”
Talk about an editorial board that is out of touch with students. If anyone should be held accountable for acting against the interest of students, it should be the Herald editorial board.
We are sure that by delaying the State Street Design Project we were voting in the best interests of our constituents — namely, students — and in the best interests of the city as a whole for several important reasons.
First, Gov. McCallum recently had his controversial Budget Repair Bill introduced by Republicans in the state Assembly. If it passes, the Budget Repair Bill would pass the burden of the state’s fiscal irresponsibility to local communities by eliminating much-needed state aid.
In Madison, this would amount to a cut of $8.3 million for this fiscal year and a cut of approximately $16.1 million annually in the years to come — roughly 10 percent of our annual budget.
As a result, the city has been talking about cutting the entire community services budget, which includes important tenant services, daycare, neighborhood centers and planning councils, domestic violence programs, the Rape Crisis Center, child-abuse prevention programs, transitional-housing programs, youth services, senior services, GED tutoring programs, the Women’s Transit Authority, and much more. Nothing is safe in our budget at this moment; even crucial police and fire services are potentially on the chopping block.
At such a time, it would be exceptionally irresponsible to be moving full-speed ahead on a project that costs $15 million for State Street and an additional $17 million for adjacent streets with a budget crisis the size of Texas looming on the horizon.
While it is true that we are expecting a substantial amount of funding to come from the federal government and other cities, the city will undoubtedly be contributing a significant amount of the multi-million-dollar price tag for the project.
Yes, we should do necessary repairs and not allow one of our city’s treasures continue to deteriorate, but we need to know the impact of any budget changes made by our state legislators and we need a financing package to insure we have the resources to complete the project.
The second reason we feel the project should be delayed stems from another quote from the Herald’s editorial: “After 20 years of neglect State Street is slowly but surely dying and students are suffering as a result.” During a period in which we are threatened by a potentially devastating budget crisis, what gets funded becomes a matter of essential priorities.
In response to the Herald’s statement, we demand that after more than 20 years of neglect by the city, it is time that students, youth, tenants, community members of color and community members with lower incomes finally became a priority. What is more important, people or aesthetics? That is the real question before us.
State Street is a very important heart of our city, which we all know could use some help. But people also need to be a priority of our budgets, and if we are going to be spending such a large amount on State Street, we also need to be spending a similarly large amount on affordable housing, tenant education, the enforcement of landlord-tenant laws and housing-discrimination laws in the city, as well as all of the community services listed above.
Here is a list of things we’ve been working on for students and for everyone else in the city of Madison. At the upcoming council meeting, we are sponsoring an ordinance entitled Tenants’ Rights and Responsibilities, which would mandate that landlords distribute a list of tenants’ rights and important contact info to have them enforced. Additional ordinances we are sponsoring at upcoming meetings would make it illegal to discriminate against tenants who receive government assistance (this could include financial aid) and would make it mandatory for landlords to notify tenants that were denied housing just precisely why they were denied. And this is just the beginning.
As alders we will have to come up with a list of things to cut from the budget. We would greatly appreciate any input regarding what should and what should definitely not be cut from our budget. Please contact us through the following means.
Todd Jarrell, District 8 ([email protected]), Brenda Konkel, District 2 ([email protected]) and Tom Powell, District 5 ([email protected]) are Madison City Council members.