Mayor Rhodes-Conway Releases 2025 Executive Operating Budget
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Today, Mayor Sayta Rhodes-Conway released her 2025 Executive Operating Budget, which details her plan to fund the services, programs, and skilled staff that sustain Madison’s high quality of life and keep our economy strong. The Operating Budget is complemented by the 2025 Executive Capital Budget, which was released in September and details funding for buildings, infrastructure, and other capital investments.
The operating budget was developed in the face of challenging and unrealistic revenue constraints from the State legislature. Madison is the core of the fastest-growing area in the state because it’s a great place to live and work. But due to the State Legislature’s long-standing caps on revenue, City government cannot capture the benefits of that growth, or even keep up with inflation. After more than a decade of an ever-increasing gap between costs and revenues, the City's operating budget for 2025 has a $22 million structural deficit.
As a result, and to continue to invest in Madison's future and balance the budget, City leaders have placed a measure asking voters to approve a $22 million funding referendum on the November ballot. The Mayor’s primary Executive Budget is designed for a future where voters approve the referendum and maintains the City’s investments in high-quality services and operations while continuing the City’s ongoing efforts to operate as efficiently as possible.
“Madison provides basic services that are widely supported and valued by our community. As our city grows, we need to continue to invest in order to maintain those services,” said Mayor Rhodes-Conway. “City workers pick up our garbage, provide public safety, maintain our parks, and staff our libraries and polling places. I believe voters will see the value of these services in their lives and will approve a referendum, which will give us the time we need to get a better deal for cities across Wisconsin.”
As detailed below, the budget proposal also outlines a contingency plan in the event the referendum fails to pass.
Executive Budget Proposal
The Mayor’s Executive budget largely focuses on maintaining the valuable services Madison provides to a fast-growing city. This budget largely maintains existing service levels and prioritizes what matters most to manage the budget as efficiently as possible. Highlights of this budget include:
- Requiring every department to reduce their budgets by 1 percent, even as we serve a growing city. This measure will save taxpayers $3.4 million.
- Reducing the budget of the Office of the Independent Monitor by $195,000 to reflect lower-than-expected activity and reallocating that money to the library system for Reindahl Imagination Center start-up costs.
- Eliminating Sunday drop-off hours at the Olin Avenue drop-off site for garbage, yard waste, and recycling, which saves money on hourly employees and fleet costs.
- Adding two new Street Machine Operators for garbage and recycling pick-up to meet the needs of a growing population. The City is adding around 800 new garbage and recycling customers each year, and after more than seven years of stretching resources and finding efficiencies to meet this growing demand with existing operators, we finally have to expand to meet the need.
- Reallocating funds in Public Health away from less critical programs to violence prevention work.
- Maintaining current investment levels in public safety and vital community services.
Alternative Budget Preparation
In addition to the Executive Operating Budget, responsible budgeting requires an alternate plan if the referendum does not pass in November. In this situation, the City would propose amendments to close the $22 million budget gap by cutting $5.6 million in services from the operating budget, while introducing $10 million in new special charges and using a prudent amount of fund balance to fill the gap.
City staff have long been finding efficiencies and doing more with less. That means the City has come to a point where any easy cuts have already been made and budget reductions must be accompanied with service reductions. The budget reductions eliminate at least 18.2 full-time equivalent positions and funding for hourly employees at a time when Madison is growing rapidly. This is on top of expected reductions in Metro’s workforce, or other potential cuts in Police and Fire.
“Cuts like these shouldn’t be needed in a growing and thriving city. We are the economic engine of the state,” says Mayor Rhodes-Conway. “But until the State legislature stops hamstringing our growth, we are left with few options.”
Budget reductions were selected based on a number of factors including input from agencies, data on what services meet the greatest needs of residents, community feedback, a goal to maintain core public safety and health services, state penalties for reductions to police and fire services, and focusing staffing reductions on vacant rather than filled positions. Additionally, proportionately larger reductions are proposed for the Mayor’s Office and Council.
Examples of proposed reductions if the referendum does not pass include the following in 2025. These represent some but not all of the cuts, and nearly every City agency is impacted by this budget scenario. Importantly, without the referendum, additional, deeper reductions will be required in future budgets as well.
Community Services
- Sunday hours would be eliminated from all libraries except for the Central library, and funding for library programming such as family story times, teen engagement programs, and job- and computer-training sessions would be reduced by $329,000.
- Over $500,000 would be cut from funding to community-based organizations that provide critical services like restorative justice programming, employment training, and funding assistance for early childhood programs.
- Grant support for the arts will be reduced and grants for neighborhood projects would be eliminated.
- City funding for the downtown Business Improvement District will be reduced by $62,000 which may lead to fewer downtown events.
- Eliminating currently vacant positions in Building Inspections will likely lengthen wait times and require more automated interactions when contacting the agency.
- Funding for city-operated ice rinks, which are increasingly unviable due to climate change, would be eliminated.
Government Services
- Reductions to vacant IT Media Team positions will require the City to reduce the number of meetings that are broadcast publicly for remote viewing.
Public Safety
- The popular CARES program, which provides mental health emergency response, will leave a position vacant and expand its limited coverage more slowly.
- All funding for the Office of the Independent Monitor and the Police Civilian Oversight Board would be eliminated.
- Recently enacted state laws instituted financial penalties that would further reduce the City budget if core police and fire budgets or staffing are reduced. The City values the services provided by both our Police and Fire departments. We also recognize they are the largest share of the budget. To equitably distribute cuts, the Police Department was asked to identify $300,000 in reductions, and the Fire Department was asked to identify $200,000 in reductions. In both scenarios, the reductions must not impact state requirements related to “maintenance of effort.”
Public Works
- The special charge paid by property owners for the State Street “mall maintenance” will increase from 50% to 75% of expenses.
- Cutting hourly staffing in the Streets department will significantly reduce weekday hours and eliminate Sunday hours at the city’s drop-off sites.
- Curbside brush pick-up will be reduced from five to three times per year, and the free woodchip program for residents would be eliminated.
- Overtime hours would not be used to clear snow from the arterial multi-use paths, which will slow snow removal from paths.
Transportation
- Metro will reduce service hours from their bus schedules.
- Cutting a vacant Traffic Engineering position would lead to longer wait times for traffic safety improvements.
Again, if the referendum fails to pass in November, additional cuts will be required every year, and future reductions will cut more deeply into core services. This is particularly frustrating because our economy is booming, and our population is growing.
“City services like libraries, parks, public safety, and environmental protection are the foundation that underpin our economy. There is no rational reason Madisonians should see cuts to these services. I hope and believe the people of Madison will support a better path forward,” said Mayor Rhodes-Conway. “I’m encouraged by the mayors and state legislators across Wisconsin advocating for change at the state-level. Allowing local communities to thrive is not a partisan issue and it benefits all Wisconsin residents.”
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