The City of Madison Finance Committee late Monday appeared ready to pass a $40 vehicle registration fee on drivers to close a hole in the mayor’s 2020 operating budget, but with relief for some low-income residents.
Committee members considered 25 amendments to Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway’s proposed $340.4 million operating budget, including proposals to add three to 12 police officers and 10 firefighter-paramedics to staff an ambulance at Fire Station No. 14 on the Southeast Side.
As of press time, the committee had not voted on whether to add police and fire staff at a cost of $168,000 to $672,000 for police and $637,000 for fire.
There was little opportunity to add expenses to the budget because the committee rejected nearly all proposed budget cuts. Based on amendments for new spending added as of press time, committee members had room to get an additional $162,000 in revenue by raising property taxes higher than what the mayor proposed in her budget. State levy limits restrict how much the city can raise property taxes.
“I will not call a vote until we have a budget that is balanced,” Rhodes-Conway said earlier in the meeting.
No amendments reduced or eliminated the $40 vehicle registration fee, also called a wheel tax, that is projected to bring in $7.9 million in revenue annually, and would be the highest such fee in the state .
The tax would help close a projected $11 million budget shortfall and extend bus service to the city’s South Side. It would also help jump-start programming for Bus Rapid Transit, a high-frequency, high-capacity, limited-stop service that Rhodes-Conway hopes to have in place by 2024 to reduce vehicle traffic.
If approved by the City Council, the fee would be in addition to Dane County’s wheel tax of $28, adopted in 2018, and a state wheel tax that increased $10 this year to $85, bringing the total annual vehicle registration cost for city residents to $153. The city fee would take effect in early 2020.
An amendment proposed by Ald. Shiva Bidar, which was approved by the finance committee on a near-unanimous voice vote, would help “ease the burden” of the wheel tax on some low-income residents.
Bidar’s proposal would use $100,000 in funding for Madison Metro, the city’s bus service, to provide 2,500 $40 gift cards to recipients of federal Women, Infant and Children assistance to offset the $40 wheel tax.
Madison has to notify the Wisconsin Department of Transportation at least 90 days before the month that the wheel tax would take effect. The City Council would have to hold a special session to pass the wheel tax by the end of October or lose out on about $550,000 in estimated revenue in February.
Police funding draws controversy
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