Last week Mayor Paul Soglin introduced his 2016 capital budget. This is the borrowing package for streets, buildings, vehicles and other items that are expected to last for several years. The capital budget includes borrowing for next year and an extended five-year plan as well. The operating budget, which is usually the more interesting document, isn’t due for introduction until the first Tuesday in October.
But any budget document is, at base, a statement of values. Because we can’t afford everything, even when we’re doing record borrowing as we have under Soglin, we have to make hard choices. And those choices reveal who we are as a community.
So here’s what Mayor Soglin’s capital budget says about our values:
- We value the big downtown project more than we value smaller neighborhood projects. By far the biggest single project in the mayor’s budget is the record-setting subsidy to build the Judge Doyle Square mixed-use development. Soglin would spend $57.4 million on that. At the same time the mayor would dramatically cut back on funding for community center building projects, going from $6 million to just $1.5 million.
- We don’t especially value public safety. After years of promises to build a Midtown police station on the west side, Soglin kicked that out of even the extended five-year plan. Police Chief Mike Koval is quoted in news reports as saying, “Frankly, we feel the public has been sold a bill of goods, and now these expectations have been shattered.” The problem is that the West District is huge, encompassing around 80,000 residents, and so it needs another station to break that into more manageable units. The council feels strongly about this. Expect alders to put the station back in and to defy the mayor’s threat of a veto if they do.
- We don’t value the environment. Another project that predates Soglin is a biodigester that would process biodegradable wastes like food scraps. Cities across the nation, including San Francisco, started collecting these items years ago. Frankly, Madison, once a leader in recycling, is now way back in the pack. But after a successful curbside composting pilot program, Soglin has all but killed the program and hasn’t included funding for it in his capital budget.
- We want to pay lip service to the local food movement while not actually doing much. Yet another project that started years ago has stalled under this administration. A year-round public market, once planned for what is now the Judge Doyle Square site but moved out to East Johnson Street by the mayor, would be put off now until 2021 under Soglin’s most recent plan. The mayor tells anyone who listens that he’s committed to this project. But mayors are in a unique position to show their commitment is real through real funding. Like biodegradable waste collection, public markets are amenities that progressive cities have. It’s the kind of thing that keeps us in competition for talented and mobile young people.
And here’s my main point: If the Madison community had to make a choice between spending $57.4 million on Judge Doyle Square and funding community centers, a new police station, a biodigester and a public market at a total cost that was actually significantly less than JDS, I’m pretty sure Madisonians would pick the longer list of community-based projects over the fancy one downtown.
The capital budget is now in the hands of the council. Right out of the gate the mayor created a hostile tone by threatening to veto any budget with significant changes to his proposal. The council shouldn’t take that too seriously. After all, the mayor threatened to veto the budget last year only to back down once he figured out that his veto would be overridden. He instead allowed the budget to go into effect without his signature, an unusual action that leaves constituents wondering where he actually stands.
The council could take up Soglin’s challenge to reduce borrowing by cutting Judge Doyle Square, doing the other projects, and still delivering a budget that has an overall level of borrowing that was lower than what he proposed.
