Dane County Executive Joe Parisi released his 2024 budget Oct. 2. The budget contains $787.6 million to fund operations of the Dane County government and $149.8 million to fund capital investments and new projects.
The operating and capital budgets grew by $85 million and $28.4 million, respectively, compared to 2023. The Dane County government will see a total staffing increase of 61.6 full-time equivalents, according to the budget.
Health and human services will receive 39.2% of the budget, 21.2% will go toward public safety and criminal justice, 9.3% to public works, 10.4% toward debt services, 9.5% to general government, 5.5% to conservation and economic development and 4.9% to culture education and recreation, according to the budget.
A majority 35.7% of the budget is funded by intergovernmental revenues, revenue passed from one level of government to another, followed by a county tax levy (33.7%) and sales tax (12%).
Budget items include $550,000 toward heating ventilation and air conditioning for Badger Prairie Needs Network’s Verona facilities, $1.5 million toward construction of a men’s homeless shelter on Bartillon Drive in Madison and $11 million to extend the Great Sauk Trail over the Wisconsin river and into Dane County, according to the budget.
Other major budget items include opioid settlement funds, the Madison CARES program and the Dane County 911 Communications Center.
Opioid Settlement Fund
Approximately $1.7 million of the 2024 Dane County operating budget will go toward bolstering the Opioid Settlement Fund, according to the budget.
The fund is a yearly investment by the state of Wisconsin into combatting the opioid epidemic. Settlement funding comes from a 2017 lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies that allegedly contributed to an increase in opioid-related deaths, according to a WDOJ press release.
Funding will go toward opioid prevention curriculum in Dane County schools, community education programs and providing communities with the emergency overdose treatment Narcan, a brand of naloxone. Public Health of Madison and Dane County will receive $175,000 to purchase this emergency treatment, according to the budget.
Wisconsin specifically is seeing marginal progress in Narcan availability, District 16 Dane County Supervisor Rick Rose said.
“It can be sold over the counter now,” Rose said. “And the price is high. They’re still $50, but at least it’s attainable and I was really proud to be in Sun Prairie and see it on the shelf.”
Dane County saw 149 opioid-related deaths in 2021 and saw a 30% increase in opioid-related deaths between 2016 and 2021, according to the press release.
To combat this, the budget will fund Dane County Fire and Emergency Health Services with $35,000 toward naloxone and Overdose Aid Kits.
Opioid investments capture the key message of the 2024 budget and show residents that policymakers are listening, Rose said.
“[The Opioid Settlement Fund] is really centered around the overarching theme of the budget, which is mental health,” Rose said. “We did public hearings on this issue, and we have people with lived experiences telling us how they want the money spent.”
Extension of the CARES program
Madison’s Community Alternative Response Emergency Services is receiving a $200,000 grant to expand across Dane County, according to the budget.
Beginning in 2021, CARES provides Madison 911 responders with an alternative answer to non-violent mental health emergencies, according to Madison Emergency Health Services.
Instead of sending a law enforcement officer, responders have the option to send a CARES team, one Madison Fire Department paramedic and one Journey Mental Health Center crisis worker, according to the CARES website.
Social unrest on issues of mental health and police officers ultimately led to the creation of CARES, Madison Fire Department Medical Operations Chief Ché Stedman said.
“We had been researching other programs around the country,” Stedman said. “We had one of our City Council persons Arvina Martin, approach the fire chiefs and say, ‘hey, the City Council will support this.’”
In 2021, Dane County provided the fourth most mental health services across all Wisconsin counties with 3,090 people served, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
If the budget is adopted, any community within a reasonable distance could be incorporated into the CARES program, Stedman said.
“We understand that the City of Madison isn’t the only place that has behavioral health emergencies,” Stedman said. “Winona, and Maple Bluff, and Middleton and all the communities that touch are surrounded by the city of Madison — it just makes sense for us to provide those services similar to what we currently do.”
Dane County 911 Communications Center
The Dane County Public Safety Communications Center has plans to operate in a new $36.4 million communications center which is to be built in the East District near Highway AB, according to the budget.
The new center will provide Dane County 911 with a wider operational bandwidth, Training and Outreach Manager for Dane County Public Safety Communications John Leonard said.
The current 911 center located on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd in Madison sits at 10,000 square feet, while the new center is projected to be 34,000 square feet, Leonard said.
“It’s really going to allow us a lot more flexibility in terms of growth potential,” Leonard said. “We know the county’s expanding, we’ve got more people moving here and it’s really important to us that we have that additional space for adequate day-to-day operations and adequate training and community events, different outreach opportunities.”
Along with the new communication center, the PSC has plans to bring on four new crisis counselors and four new communicators. Additionally, the communication center will provide increased flexibility to the CARES program, Leonard said.
“We can triage those [mental health emergency calls] in-house and save the mobile response teams for the calls that truly need them,” Leonard said. “It’s going to be a better use of resources for everybody.”
The $36 million will go toward construction of the building as well as furniture, according to the budget. Construction will place a heavy emphasis on environmental sustainability, Leonard said.
Construction plans are still in the preliminary stages, but the PSC hopes to have the center up and running by October, November and December of 2025, Leonard said.
Looking forward
Executive Parisi has already submitted the proposed 2024 budget to the Dane County Board of Supervisors, according to the budget.
During the month of October, supervisor committees will deliberate on the budget, make amendments and submit a revised copy in late November, according to the budget. Dane County residents will have a chance to give their input on specific budget items at a public hearing scheduled for November, Rose said.
“We’re making amendments for the month of October,” Rose said. “Then by early November, the public is invited for a public session, or to come in here and give their input. And then it goes to vote.”
Programs detailed in the final 2024 Dane County budget will begin implementation in January of 2024, Rose said.
