In a single deliberation session, Madison’s City Council unanimously passed both the operating budget of $276.2 million and capital budget of $224.5 million, finalizing the 2014 city budget Tuesday night.
The council highlighted amendments on both downtown safety and homelessness before passing the $198,180,300 budget, with an estimated $2,196 average property tax per household set to fund the budget.
Downtown Safety
An amendment allocating specific funds for the downtown safety initiative to pay overtime police officers faced some scrutiny after several council members questioned its necessity, saying the police department already allocates money to spend on overtime pay for officers.
Ald. Christ Schmidt, District 11, who said he was not in favor of “earmarking” funds for overtime police patrol, added the police will use the money as they see fit regardless of an amendment.
The council ultimately voted to approve the initiative.
Homelessness
The budget also offered multiple amendments addressing human services, highlighting the need to provide services to the homeless before a day shelter is completed this summer, including amendments to support transportation for homeless to and from shower facilities and funding for laundry services for the homeless.
“It’s an immediate need here in downtown,” Ald. Scott Resnick, District 8, said. “You can walk outside, walk through State Street …You’re going to see homeless individuals. That need is not going away in Madison and it became a forefront in our [budget] conversation.”
The council also passed a much-debated amendment to provide $300,000 in funding for the planning and construction of public toilet facilities for the downtown area, to address both the homeless community’s needs and those of the general public.
The original budget amendment offered $500,000 for the project, however, multiple alders pointed out that no one could answer why $500,000 was the projected number.
Ald. Steve King, District 7, said the council added the amendment because they felt the best way to facilitate discussion on the need for public restrooms downtown was to attach money to the issue.
“I’m uncomfortable with the idea that we pulled this out of the air,” King said. “But I am comfortable with the idea that we are saying …on behalf of some of the people that talked here and some of the conversations we’ve had in our committees and in our neighborhoods, that we need to have this conversation, and we need to have it in 2014. And in order to do that, the best way is to put some money around it and go. So that’s [what] we’re gonna do.”
Mayor Paul Soglin said he disapproved of this tactic, saying the council has never done “anything on the fly” like this before. Still, the council passed the new amendment, decreasing the allocated amount for the public toilet project by $200,000.
Soglin concluded the meeting by thanking the council for their work on making the budget process this year more effective and efficient.
“I would just like to thank the council,” Soglin said. “We’ve gone through three years of evolution on this … [past common council presidents] contributed to building a process here that has led to greater citizen input over the years.”
The budget will go into effect January 1, 2014.
Editor’s note: The article orignally cited the budget as $198,180,300, which is actually the tax levy. The total budget amounts to over four million dollars. The Badger Herald greatly regrets the mistake.
