Madison mayoral candidate Ray Allen unveiled a new proposal this week to help alleviate crime and poverty — two issues he has said are linked throughout his election campaign.
The proposal calls for the creation of a "Hope and Opportunity Fund," which would provide programs for Madison residents living below the poverty line.
Programs would include toddler education, parenting classes, tuition payments for people to advance their jobs or reading levels, and after-school and summer classes for children in the Madison Metropolitan School District.
"Poverty is actually the most pressing issue that Madison is facing — 15 percent of Madison, which is over 30,000 [residents], live in poverty," Allen spokesperson Semmi Pasha said. "Those numbers, unfortunately, just keep going higher and higher."
Pasha said it is no coincidence crime rates in Madison have increased as poverty rates have increased — he said the two social problems are connected.
The plan would look for funding from multiple sources, including $5 million per year from the City Council, until the poverty level drops to 5 percent or less. The proposal also asks for $1 million per year from the MMSD, $4 million per year from Dane County and $2 million from the state budget.
Additionally, the plan asks for the federal government to match the $12 million total in 2007 and 2008.
The plan will determine when the poverty level drops to 5 percent by looking at the measurements of the MMSD free and reduced lunch program.
However, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, who is seeking re-election this year, said the program is unrealistic for Madison.
"It won't work fiscally," Cieslewicz said. "He's asking for $1 million from the school district at a time when the school district is trying to fill a $10 million budget gap."
The mayor added the new proposal does not fit with what Allen has said throughout the campaign — namely, that Cieslewicz has been a fiscally irresponsible mayor.
Throughout the campaign, Allen has been particularly critical of the mayor's support of a $300,000 study to look into the feasibility of streetcars in Madison.
"He talks about the need [for] budget responsibly, but he's proposed [millions] in new spending without proposing anything he would cut, or any taxes he would increase," Cieslewicz said.
He added poverty is something his administration has been working on for the past four years, citing the $100,000 Emerging Neighborhoods program and investments in Allied Drive.
However, Pasha said Allen thinks his plan asks for a suitable amount of money, and stressed the funds would come from multiple sources in an effort to not burden Madison taxpayers.
The proposal also says a business can donate up to 15 percent of its municipal property tax to the fund. Pasha said Allen has not yet decided if some kind of incentive program will be used, or even needed.
"Poverty and crime are serious threats to our economic development," Pasha said. "[Businesses] have just as much, if not more, invested in fighting poverty and crime as everyone else."
The two candidates will face off in the April 3 election. For those residents who will not be in town during the election, absentee ballots are available at the city clerk's office on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
