Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway announced Madison’s Executive Operating Budget Tuesday, proposing two possible versions based on whether or not the city’s $22 million funding referendum passes this November.
City of Madison Communications Manager Dylan Brogan said the purpose of the referendum is to ensure the city government has the funding it needs to provide essential public services.
“Our services are just being stretched to their limit, when we have so many people moving here every year but the state provides no mechanism for us to keep up with costs,” Brogan said.
Madison receives about $29 per resident of shared revenue from the state government, compared to an average of $195 per resident in other Wisconsin cities, according to Brogan.
“The reason we’re having a referendum is, costs keep going up for the city, just like everything else, but even though our city is growing … we have to get by with less every year,” Brogan said.
If the referendum passes, the budget proposes reallocating funding toward the city’s library system, to help finance the Imagination Center at Reindahl Park. The city also plans to expand garbage and recycling services by hiring two more street machine operators, according to the executive summary.
If the referendum doesn’t pass, the city plans to reduce its overall budget by $5.6 million, according to the executive summary.
Brogan said residents can expect major cuts to city services, including libraries, snow removal and Metro Transit. Some libraries may be forced to close on Sundays as a result of the budget cuts, Brogan said.
The plan also proposes eliminating the use of overtime for removing snow on multi-use paths, according to the executive summary.
“It’s going to take us longer to clear snow for bike paths,” Brogan said. “There’s going to be a lot of little things that I think people notice.”
A reduction of the Metro Transit budget would reduce bus services and may limit the amount of new staff hires, according to the summary.
The city government would also be forced to shrink the size of its staff, with at least 18 positions set to be eliminated if the referendum isn’t approved, Brogan said.
“We’re essentially shrinking city government when we’re having more residents every year, when we should be adding librarians and adding people who collect garbage and adding all sorts of folks that really make Madison a great place to live,” Brogan said.
With a $5.6 million budget cut, Brogan said there will be a lot of changes like these around the city that residents will take notice of.
“I think the real choice between having a referendum and not having a referendum is that every single year, we’re going to be running into the same problem when the community has more needs,” Brogan said. “The referendum really buys us some time for the state to treat Madison a lot fairer.”
