And to maintain services at current levels, the budget will have to grow 5.7 percent. Hmmm…doesn’t that sound suspiciously familiar? Close to the 6.4 percent the state budget grew, due largely to stimulus funds.
The city faces a tough budget with the prospect of layoffs, a wage freeze or service cuts, Cieslewicz has said.
When Mayor Dave starts talking about service cuts, you know the situation is dire. The rumor is the mayor, who puts together the budget, is going to ask for an across the board six percent cut in every department. Much like Doyle put in place a five percent cut in the state budget.
The council will be discussing a variety of other interesting policies tonight, including the approval of a study that will gather data on traffic in the city. That’s all. What it was originally going to be was a study with a goal attached – to reduce car use in the city by 25 percent by 2020. Very ambitious goal, and I have tried to contact both sponsors of the ordinance, Ald. Brian Solomon and Ald. Satya Rhodes-Conway.
Nevertheless, that language was stripped from the policy, and now it’s simply a fact-finding mission. However, according to Bryon Eagon, the Madison Chamber of Commerce has not backed down from its opposition. To a study – on traffic. Slippery slope I guess.
Kristin Czubkowski has a good run-down of other issues coming before the council tonight. The city may very well approve the use of stimulus money to prevent foreclosures and fund employment training.
Tags: Chamber of Commerce, city budget, City Council, Madison
August 4, 2009 at 4:05 pm |
Uhh…tonight?
Do you mean tomorrow? I didn’t see anything indicating they’d be talking about the budget today. There’s a hearing tomorrow…
August 4, 2009 at 6:58 pm |
You are right. Somehow I missed “this week” with today. Which is why I was so confused when the only city council things Czubkowski was mentioning were non-budget.
August 4, 2009 at 8:26 pm |
Link to budget hearing times:
http://www.cityofmadison.com/news/view.cfm?news_id=1607