By james art MADISON, Wisc. — Madison residents will see a question on their ballot asking for a levy increase to fund city services and staff.
The city has two separate budgets: the capital budget is responsible for roads and other city construction projects, the operating budget funds city personnel and services.
The operating budget is the one with a $22 million deficit.
What’s at stake?
If the referendum doesn’t pass, $5.6 million will be cut and the city will use $6.4 million from its “rainy day fund.”
Some of the discounted services include:
- Reduced library opening hours on Sundays
- Minimizes most library programs
- Reduction in Metro bus services (possibly reducing times and routes)
- Reducing leaf drop, brush and recycling sites
- Loss of funding for the Office of the Independent Police Monitor
- 18 jobs in the city will be lost or unfilled
- Overtime hours will not be used to clear snow from the multi-use trails
If the referendum passes, the budget will:
- Cut the independent monitor budget and reallocate money to the library system for Reindahl Imagination Center start-up costs
- Redirecting public health funds from less critical programs to violence prevention.
- Add two new street garbage and recycling machine operators to keep up with the city’s growth
- Require each department to reduce the budget by 1%
- Saves taxpayers $3.4 million
What will this mean for your taxes?
If the referendum passes, property taxes will increase for the average homeowner by $230 a year. That’s roughly $50 per $100,000 of property value, or $0.60 per day.
That extra $230 a year will keep the budget looking about the same as it did years ago, according to Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway.
“If the referendum goes through, it’s quite a boring budget to be honest and it basically just continues the things we’ve been doing with a few small changes and there’s not much to talk about,” she said.
Regardless of whether the referendum passes or not, taxes will still increase by $83 per year. Which means that if the referendum passes, the total tax increase on the median home would be $313 per year.
According to David Schmidicke, the city’s finance director, $83 a year is the allowable increase below the state levy limit.
“We have limits placed on us by the state legislature on how much revenue can go up and the types of revenue we can use to help pay for these services,” Schmidicke said.
In addition, if the referendum does not pass, a special infrastructure charge of $76 per year will be introduced.