Members of the Madison City Council are proposing to add $1 million in spending to the mayor’s budget for 2012, $500,000 of which will go to the Overture Center.
The council proposed 29 amendments that will add a total of $1 million of spending to Mayor Paul Soglin’s $250.4 million budget for 2012, which mainly focuses on the development of the Overture Center and other community services.
Ald. Lauren Cnare, District 3, said a major part of the increased spending would fulfill the city’s commitment to funding the Overture Center. The proposed $500,000 is in addition to the initial $1.35 million allotted in the mayor’s budget.
“It’s likely that some amendments will get approved and incorporated into the progress and some of them will fail,” said Cnare, the council’s president. “I think it’s difficult to say which of that is going make it to the process. We take care of services such as removing snow on the road. We also want to make sure we get proper and sufficient payments for these services.”
One amendment suggested to improve services was the addition of three employees to work on snow removal at bus stops, Cnare said.
Another suggested project is adding an additional $100,000 to the library budget, Cnare said. The extra funding would allow Madison libraries to spend extra on library materials like books and CDs for 2012.
The proposed increase in the library budget is due to a survey published on the City Council website, where 71.8 percent of people surveyed ranked books, eBooks and digital collections in public libraries as “very important” services for the community.
In terms of the Overture Center, 48.2 percent of surveyed subjects ranked it as “highly important” to the community.
Cnare said City Council members are looking very carefully into all of the proposed amendments to ensure that each is necessary.
“I think the questions we need to ask are ‘Do we need them?’ and ‘Do we need them now?'” she said. “We have to understand what each amendment means and how each influences society depending on individual preference.”
David Schmiedicke, the city’s Finance Director, said the major impact of the increased spending would be an increase in taxes for the average home.
If all of the amendments are approved, an additional $1.5 million above the mayor’s budget will be needed in taxes, he said.
According to the Board of Estimates’ meeting agenda, other proposed amendments include the removal of funding for a Performing Arts Study, the allocation of $30,000 to the Police Department for a Southwest Safety Initiative and additional funding to the Parks Forestry service to perform early detection of the Emerald Ash Borer.
The proposed changes will be sent to the Board of Estimates meeting Monday for a discussion on the additional spending. Board members will have a vote on the amendments.
The full council will consider the mayor’s proposed budget and decide whether to approve the amendments in mid-November.
