By james art Wisconsin’s Municipal Services Payment Program, administered by the Department of Administration, reimburses cities for the costs of police, fire, and waste services provided to state facilities within their jurisdiction.
Over the decades, the rate at which Madison recovers from the Legislature has dropped significantly. In 2023, our city received only 38% of what was owed. Despite providing about $20.8 million in police and fire services to 658 state facilities, we received about $8 million in return. That’s about $12.8 million that has been withheld from us.
This isn’t the first time we’ve had a shortage either. The last year in which the appropriation for municipal service payments covered 100% of the payments due to cities was 1981.
Figures from the Department of Administration illustrate how we have historically lost millions due to this injustice. While the downward trend apparently predates Mayor Satya Rhodes Conway’s tenure by at least two decades, some would have you believe that Madison’s compensation is entirely under her control. But it is not so.
Wisconsin legislative Republicans have been taxing our city for years. Time and time again, they have tried to punish Madison for partisan reasons by withholding investment in the areas most important to our community simply because we are too progressive for their liking.
The lack of adequate appropriations for the Municipal Services Payment Program is just one example of this. Shared revenue is another.
The current, outdated and discriminatory revenue-sharing formula forces communities to do more with less each year, and for a growing city like Madison, the consequences could be disastrous. As it stands, Madison receives just $29 per person in state aid, compared to an average of $142 per person for the rest of Wisconsin. Also, for every dollar we send to the state, we get only 18 cents back.
When you consider this disparity alongside Wisconsin’s record $4.6 billion surplus, it’s clear that our communities are underfunded by design. Republicans have held every Madison resident accountable for their austerity and their apparent resentment of our city.
We would not have to go to a referendum if we were paid the full amount of the municipal services we provide to the state. We wouldn’t have had to go to a referendum if the Republicans had given Madison a fair share of shared revenue. We wouldn’t have to go to a referendum if Republican lawmakers stopped their insidious tactics of pitting our cities against each other.
It’s not fair that the Madison taxpayer will end up having to fill the gap created by our legislation, but it’s the only choice we have to ensure the essential services our neighbors rely on continue to be provided.
Fortunately, there is a growing coalition of local and state leaders who understand that we need to adequately and fairly fund our municipalities so that situations like this stop happening. But until we have the power to hold Republican leadership in the Wisconsin state legislature accountable for not paying the state’s utility bills, among other things, I urge all of you to vote yes on the referendum questions on the Nov. 5 ballot .
We cannot divest from investment in Madison as our Legislature has done.