Meetings and Updates Week of Nov 11

• Common Council: 2025 City Budget Hearings 11/12-11/14
  • 2025 Capital Budget and One Proposed Amendment
  • 2025 Operating Budget and Proposed Amendments
  • Common Council Budget Hearings
• Heads Up: New Playground Equipment for Kennedy and Portland Parks in 2025
• Final Round of Yard Waste Pick-Up for 2025
• New City Housing Policy Report Released: Recommendations for Affordable Rental, Owner-Occupied, and Student Housing
• Events & Announcements

Common Council’s 2025 City Budget Hearings Nov 12-14

2025 Capital Budget and One Proposed Amendment

The Capital Budget pays for investments in the City’s infrastructure and assets like property or equipment. In addition to the capital spending in 2025, the 2025 Capital Budget also includes a non-final Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) for the following five years of spending on capital projects. Here is a link to the City’s webpage for the 2025 Capital Budget; for a more reader-friendly view, here is a link to its Executive Summary.

This year, the proposed 2025 Capital Budget is several million dollars lower than what City agencies requested and prioritizes investments that support the City’s growth. The 2025 Capital Budget and CIP meaningfully lowers projected General Obligation Borrowing and Debt Service costs as a percentage of the General Fund compared to the previously-adopted 2024 Capital Budget and CIP.

The 2025 Capital Budget includes several projects in South Madison that improve infrastructure added to the City when the Town of Madison attached to the City of Madison in 2022, including a new public health clinic and fire station. The 2025 Capital Budget also holds space for potential federal grant funding for North-South BRT, depending on whether those grants actually come through. Within District 3, the 2025 Capital Budget and Capital Improvement Plan include planned funding for:

• In 2025, funds from Tax Incremental Financing district 44 to pay for new sidewalks along South Stoughton Road. Note that, because the TID is the fund source, this will not affect the tax levy.
• In 2026, planned funds to reconstruct a few Mayfair Park neighborhood streets that are in poor condition.
• In 2027, planned funds to reconstruct North Star Drive between Cottage Grove Road and McLean Drive.
• In 2030, planned funds to extend Milwaukee Street from its current terminus underneath the Interstate and up to County Hwy T (near Seminary Springs). Note that this extension/connection is planned regardless of whether there is an interchange built with the Interstate, though its timing will depend on a potential new interchange.
• In 2030, planned funds for a new east-west All Ages All Abilities path over Stoughton Road just south of Highway 30, connecting the new Starkweather neighborhood (at the former Voit Farm) to the under-construction Autumn Ridge Path/Bridge project north of Hiestand Park.

Source: 2025-2030 Transportation Improvement Plan, City Engineering.

One amendment to the 2025 Capital Budget is proposed for the Common Council’s consideration on Tuesday. Alder Verveer and Council President Figueroa Cole propose an amendment that incorporates an additional $2 million for the Madison Lakeway project that comes from the Dane County budget. Because it uses County money, this amendment doesn’t affect the City tax levy nor the City Operating Budget. According to the amendment the money will be used “to implement aspects of the plan including park improvements, stormwater features, bike/pedestrian paths, and other features as permitted under state statutes.”

2025 Operating Budget and Proposed Amendments

The Operating Budget is the part of the City Budget that pays for staff salaries and services. The Operating Budget is affected by a variety of State of Wisconsin laws that constrain both its revenues and expenditures, and is the part of the budget that will now reflect a boost in revenue from Madison voters’ approval of a $22 million property tax referendum to avoid $5.6 million in staff/service cuts. Here is a link to the City’s webpage for the 2025 Operating Budget; for a more reader-friendly view, here’s a link to its Executive Summary.

Here is a high-level breakdown of how the proposed 2025 Operating Budget allocates its spending to City agencies among those with at least $10 million proposed for 2025:

1. Madison Police Department: $96.2 million
2. Madison Fire Department: $74.9 million
3. Streets Division: $28.9 million
4. Madison Public Library: $22.2 million
5. Metro Transit: $18.4 million
6. Madison Parks Division: $17.3 million
7. Community Development Division: $17.2 million
8. Information Technology: $10.98 million
9. Madison Dane County Public Health: $10.8 million
10. Traffic Engineering Division: $10.5 million

Source: 2025 Operating Budget By Function, City Finance Department.

There are five Operating Budget amendments proposed to the 2025 Operating Budget that alders will consider on Tuesday:

• Mayor Rhodes-Conway and Council President Figueroa Cole propose a “technical amendment” to reauthorize $2.2 million in Community Development Block Grant funds. This technical amendment is proposed because, unlike most local funding, these funds don’t automatically carry over to the next year when they go unspent.
• Mayor Rhodes-Conway and Council President Figueroa Cole propose to reallocate $779 of unspent American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) federal funds for homelessness support services.
• Alders Verveer and Knox propose a cost-neutral amendment to give discretion to the Streets Division Superintendent to manage drop-off location schedules in a way that allows for the partial reopening of the Olin Ave Streets drop-off site.
• Alders Verveer, Harrington-McKinney, and Knox propose to move $104k to Older Adult Services by reallocating a portion of staff time dedicated to the Affordable Housing Fund and managing compliance for complex tax credit housing projects.
• Alders Madison, Rummel, and Council VP Duncan propose an amendment to partially restore the approximately $195k of the Office of the Independent Police Monitor’s budget that the Mayor’s budget proposed to reallocate to help with start-up costs for the Reindahl Imagination Center/Library. The Mayor’s cuts would have eliminated data analyst position, legal services for complainants, Police Civilian Oversight Board (PCOB) stipends, PCOB training, PCOB child care, and PCOB conference travel. The alders’ amendment restores $127k of that funding mostly by restoring the data analyst position as part-time, plus reduced PCOB training and conferences. The amendment does this by taking money from a City Fleet Services GPS equipment tracking program (my biggest concern with this amendment), a seldom-used legal services line for the Police and Fire Commission, and funding for a part-time MPD records position that was erroneously included as a full-time position in MPD’s budget request.

Common Council Budget Hearings

The Common Council meetings for the budget hearings will take place on Tuesday, November 12, at 5:30 p.m. in hybrid format. Agenda items include budget deliberations and adopting the additional property tax levy.

• Meeting Details
  • Meeting Agenda
  • Register for Public Comment
  • Watch Online

NOTE: if the Council doesn’t finish its work on the budgets in the first meeting (Nov 12th), the Council will reconvene in additional budget hearing meetings on the 13th and 14th as needed.

Heads Up: New Playground Equipment for Kennedy and Portland Parks in 2025

Madison Parks will upgrade the playground equipment in two District 3 park playgrounds in 2025, for Portland Park in the Rolling Meadows neighborhood and Kennedy Park in the Heritage Heights neighborhood. I know several constituents whose families will be excited for these improvements!

The Parks Division will hold an initial online workshop focusing on several park playgrounds for residents and park users to learn and share ideas. The workshop will include a larger group discussion and will then break out into smaller sessions to address design considerations related to each park's playground. The workshop will be online and members of the public will be asked to register to receive a meeting link via email. The workshop is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, December 5, 2024, at 6:00 pm.

Postcards advertising the online workshop will be mailed to addresses within ¼ mile of each park. Following the playground workshop, Parks staff will schedule separate playground meetings with the respective neighborhoods to finalize the playground design.

I will share more information here as I receive it, including the registration meeting for the Dec 5th workshop. Stay tuned!

Final Round of Yard Waste Pick-Up for 2025

For some neighborhoods of Madison, the final guaranteed leaf collection of the fall begins next week. These neighborhoods have a set out day for leaves and yard waste of Sunday, November 10, 2024. This final round of guaranteed leaf collection lasts through the first week of December, depending on the address.

You can check your final pick-up week by looking up your street address on this Streets Division website.

Please follow these guidelines to make sure we can pick up your yard waste.

• Pile your leaves and yard waste on the terrace, or on the grass at the edge of the street. Do not put leaves in the street.
• Keep yard waste at least 4 feet away from trees, cars, utility poles, mailboxes, fire hydrants, and other obstructions.

Questions for Streets?

• Email: streets@cityofmadison.com
• Phone: 608-246-4532

New City Housing Policy Report Released: Recommendations for Affordable Rental, Owner-Occupied, and Student Housing

Last year, Common Council passed a resolution instructing the Housing Strategy Committee (of which I was a member) to study three housing policy questions:

• How can the City support the creation of more ownership housing types?
• How can the City help scale up the development of new affordable rental units beyond the current 400 per year pipeline?
• How can the City support the creation of affordable student housing?

Over the last year, the Housing Strategy Committee focused on these themes, meeting with subject matter experts and local developers to inform recommendations made in its 2024 Housing Supply and Affordability Report which was recently presented to the Common Council. The Report supports many initiatives already underway, but also includes several new recommendations outlined here.

A key component of the Housing Strategy Committee’s discussion of City policy for affordable housing included locations that are appropriate for affordable housing. The Committee agreed that affordable housing should not be built in areas that are resource-poor, isolated, or exposed to environmental challenges like excessive highway noise. That lead to this recommendation for affordable rental housing: “Steer developments to amenity-rich areas of the city – close to public transit corridors, parks, employment and retail centers, etc.”, which can be found on page 8 of the Report. I wanted to note that this priority is consistent with how the City targets its Affordable Housing Funds to projects according to this Affordable Housing Targeted Area map, which prioritizes parts of the City with access to frequent transit, employment opportunities, and other resources. 

Those interested in reading the full list of housing recommendations can find a bulleted list in this City news release. Notably, the news release and the Report also include an explanation of what types of rent or mortgage costs are considered “affordable” for various jobs and salary levels that we see in Madison.

Events & Announcements

• City of Madison Honors those Lives Lost due to Traffic Violence during Week prior to the World Day of Remembrance: In recognition of World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims on Sunday, November 17th, the City of Madison will install a memorial display and host a press conference to remember the lives lost due to traffic violence on City of Madison… [posted November 8, 2024]
• OIM Opening Investigative Process, Monday, November 11: The Office of the Independent Monitor will be providing details on the opening of its investigative process. The Office is also announcing the start of a data project in collaboration with UCLA. After remarks, Independent Monitor Robin Copley and Data Analyst Greg Gelembiuk will be taking questions from the media.
• LGBTQ 50+ Intergenerational Autumn Dinner, Thursday, November 14: A fun fall gathering of like-minded adults to mingle, enjoy a meal, listen to music, and maybe even do some dancing. Blush is a local all-girl band out of Madison. Their music is grungy alternative-rock, and they will play some originals and some covers everyone is sure to know.  A $20 donation for the meal is appreciated but not required. Registration required, call 608-255-8582. Open to all ages of queer folks and their allies.
• World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, Friday, November 15: The City of Madison Vision Zero team will be hosting their 3rd installation display to honor those lost from traffic violence beginning on Monday, November 11. 
• Bird & Nature Adventures | Starkweather Creek Area, Saturday, November 16: Fall Tree Walk ~ Join Naturalist Tree Expert Sean Gere for a fun and informal free family friendly guided walk or take a healthy nature hike on your own any day in December on easy walk and bike paths along Starkweather Creek. Enjoy the outdoors and learn about trees when leaves have fallen and you can see the branching structures and bark more easily.   

For the full list of upcoming events, please visit the City events calendar.