Projects in the 2017 Madison City Council and Dane County Board budgets are starting to become a reality as the new calendar year begins.
The budgets provide funding for restorative justice and court mentoring programs, as well as a $15 living wage for county employees, which County Board members believe to be a preliminary step toward pay equity.
County Board budget pushes wage equity, criminal justice reforms
Council approves 2017 budget, funding restorative justice programs, police station
Alternatives to jail, court system serve to help community
County Supervisor Jenni Dye, District 33, and Ald. Zach Wood, District 8, both discussed the restorative justice program, a major item continued in the 2017 city budget. The program aims to help young criminal offenders rebuild damages and improve relationships with people in the community, Dye said.
“We partner with other organizations…[to] create other alternatives for kids instead of just sending everybody to community court and then to a jail sentence,” Wood said.
The city partners with outside organizations like the YWCA to create those alternatives, Wood said.
The court mentoring program was a prominent item in the 2017 County Board budget as it helps people navigate through the criminal justice system, Dye said. It also seeks to prevent issues for individuals in the system who may have suffered penalties because they lacked information on what they needed to do while in the system, Dye said.
“We make sure people aren’t finding themselves in a bad position just because they didn’t know they needed to be in court on a specific day,” Dye said.
New living wage highlights county focus on pay equity
Another main focus of the County Board’s budget is pay equity, County Supervisor Hayley Young, District 5, said.
The steps to create a $15 living wage for county employees will become a reality in the new year as it was incorporated and fully funded in the approved 2017 County Board budget, Young said. Many people who provide important services to Dane County — including students — will benefit from this wage increase, Dye said.
Dane County Board passes $15 minimum wage for county employees
“People who make Dane County work deserve to have a living wage that allows them to enjoy all of the great things about living in the Dane County area,” Dye said.
The living wage initiative is just one part in a larger step toward pay equity, Young said. Cost-of-living adjustments for Purchase of Service contracts is another component in this step, she said.
Dane County hires various outside organizations through POS contracts to provide critical services which help the community. One example of services through POS contracts is providing daily living skills assistance to individuals with disabilities, Dye said.
The County Board budget will provide a two percent increase in POS wages, Dye said. The POS contracts have not seen increases which reflect the rate of inflation, Dye added.
An increase close to the inflation rate allows individuals to retain a level of buying power similar to what they had with their previous year’s wage.
“Investing in making Dane County a better place to live, work and play impacts everyone,” Young said.
