Mayor Paul Soglin released his annual capital budget with plans to delegate funds toward the creation of a public market and a skateboard park in Madison.
Soglin introduced a $192 million budget that includes more than $23 million in federal grants. Ninety-three percent the grant funds will be used for transportation, six percent to open space and recreation and one percent to public safety, according to a city budget summary.
He said there are several commitments to public transportation in the budget, though he also intends to build a public market within the city.
“A public market that focuses on access to quality, fresh food not only provides a health benefit to a community, but it also provides some economic savings and an opportunity to grow locally owned and controlled businesses,” Soglin said. “This is one of the real opportunities for our community.”
He added that the city also has the opportunity to sustain more than one market in the future.
Soglin said the city has received negative responses concerning the proposed funding for a skateboard park. He said a number of years ago, the city received an open spaces grant to do work on the “central park,” and the city is only allowed to use that money on that project site.
“I did make an effort in the past year to talk to the feds to see whether or not they chose some flexibility both in terms of transportation and outside the project boundary lines,” Soglin said. “They were very clear those monies have to be used on that project site.”
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said he supports the skate park. He noted that Madison is one of the few cities that does not already have one, and some University of Wisconsin students may use it because of its proposed location on the east side of the Capitol.
Soglin said the reflection of his own priorities in the budget is minimal, because the budget is a product of commitments the city made in prior years and cannot be flexible given the inherited levels of debt service.
He said the sources of funding for the capital and operating budget include general obligation borrowing, federal funds, state funds, private contributions and others. Soglin said he is partly unhappy with the total number.
“I wish the [general obligation] borrowing was even less because of what it does to our debt service in future years,” Soglin said. “We’ve made some attempt to use cash in certain instances to fund some of these projects and some of these activities trying to move the city away from using borrowed money for one-time studies.”
The current budget gap for the operating budget is $10 million, Soglin said. He added he will continue to work with city staff to present a balanced budget to the City Council in approximately 30 days.
He added city agencies will face five percent reductions, which may lead to alternative options for each agency. The reduction may prove to be significant in services, he said.
Verveer said a number of downtown streets will be reconstructed and the renovation of Library Mall is scheduled to cost about $5 million. He said he was with Soglin’s proposed budget plan.
“Overall, I think he made very good, tough choices,” Verveer said.
