This is the first of many blog posts with information about the 2014 city budgets.
PROCESS
The process is first the departments submit budget requests. The Tuesday in Sept the Mayor will have his capital (projects) budget done, the first Tuesday in October the Mayor will have his operating (daily costs to run the city) done. The Board of Estimate then will make changes to the budget and it will, in November, make it to the Common Council to vote. The calendar for the operating budget is here. The calendar for the capital budget is here. The Mayor’s instructions to the department on the operating budget asked them to
As you work with the Finance Department to prepare your agency budget requests, overall funding should not exceed 2013 amounts, except to fully fund already enacted commitments and certain cost-to-continue items. You should also prepare an alternate budget that includes specific proposals to reduce your requested budget by 3%.
with these stated priorities
I hope that we will be able to maintain essential city services next year as well as address issues relating to poverty in Madison. Boosting employment and stabilizing neighborhoods are key elements in strengthening our community, which will help our city budget in the long run.
Now that the departments have submitted their budgets, we have something to work with and people will be lobbying the mayor to get their items into his budget – so that is the target if you see something you like or don’t like! MayorGeneralMailbox@cityofmadison.com or 266-4511. The lobbyist are getting paid a lot to get what they want, mere citizens are largely not a part of the process at this point, unless YOU do something about it! Each step along the way means there are less and less changes left to be made as they approach the levy limits imposed by the state restricting how much they can spend. Next year, lobby your department heads! 🙂 And, your alders can (may not) have this information now, so you can start in on them as well! (allalders@cityofmadison.com).
CITY ATTORNEYS OFFICE – DEPARTMENT 02
Documents submitted
Main Budget Document
Reduction 1 – Prosecution Intern
$3,000 – Summer Prosecution Intern would not be hired in 2014. This position helps reduce the prosecutors’ workload.
Reduction 2 – Memberships
Reduce Membership Account by $2,000. This account has been slightly over budget the last two years due to rising costs for membership dues such as the State Bar of Wisconsin and IMLA (International Municipal Lawyers Association)
Reduction 3 – Computer Supply
Reduce Computer Supplies account by $2,000. This money was going to be used to replace outdated equipment
Reduction 4 – Reproduction-Fast Copy
Reduce reproduction copier/fast copy account by $5,000. This money was going to be used to replace an older/outdated copier/fax/scanner.
Reduction 5 – Training and Travel
Reduce Training and Travel account by $5,000.
Reduction 6 – Capital Assets
Reduce Capital Assets by $20,000. This money originally was to be used to purchase several office workstations that are severely outdated and non-functional.
Reduction 7 – Assistant City Attorney 75%
(I can’t figure out why that link is broken)
– The least senior Assistant City Attorney would be reduced to 75% time. As an alternative to this, the Office of the City Attorney would close down the entire office for 2.5 days with all City Attorney staff taking unpaid furlough days.
Budget highlights
The Budget includes:
1. This 2014 budget is $27,000 under target due to two retirements in the Office of the City Attorney.
2. The following expenditures were adjusted to more closely relfect the needs of our office:
– $20,000 was added to capital assets to purchase several office workstations that are severelly outdated and non-functional.
– $2,000 was added to the memberships account as costs in this area have increased and the OCA has been over budget in this area in 2012 and is projected to be overbudget again in 2013.
– $3,000 was added to the Other General account to pay for a summer prosecution intern to ease the workload of the prosecution staff.
– Increase Training and Travel from $15,000 to $20,000 to provide staff with adequate training.
– Increase Reproduction Copier/Fast Copy from $12,00 to $17,000 to replace an outdated copier/fax/ scanner.
– Increase computer supplies from $1,000 to $3,000 to replace outdated equipment.
CIVIL RIGHTS – DEPARTMENT 04
Documents submitted
Main Budget Document
Languagereductionproposal
$18,378 To eliminate the funds for language assistance and interpretation
AASPIREreductionproposal
$22,000 To eliminate the entire AASPIRE Internship Program or reduce the number of Interns hired
Budget Highlights
None.
COMMON COUNCIL – DEPARTMENT 06
Documents submitted
Main Budget Document
Budget Highlights
1. Potential Sick Leave Payout
MAYOR’S OFFICE – DEPARTMENT 08
Documents submitted
Main Budget Document
Budget Highlights
None
CLERK – DEPARTMENT 45
Documents submitted
Main Budget Document
2014 Clerks Office Supplemental Budget Request
$19,159 – Add a .5 FTE Certified Municipal Clerk position to the City Clerk’s Office, and reallocate Jean Tretow-Schmitz (currently working half-time) to that position. Provide funding to underfill the vacated Certified Municipal Clerk position in the Clerk’s Office as a Municipal Clerk 1 position as of July 6. Reduce overtime wages by $5,000 because the completion of more work during normal working hours will mean less overtime is needed.
2014 Clerks Office Reduction
$37,713 – Cut an average of 1.5 Election Officials from each polling place in November, reducing the number of Election Officials at each single-ward polling location to 11 or 12, depending on the size of the ward. Eliminate voter outreach AASPIRE Intern and scale back the printing of voter outreach materials.
Budget Highlights
1. Spring Primary and Spring Election for County Board, School Board, and Circuit Court.
2. Fall Primary and General Election for Governor, State Executive Offices, Congress, and State Legislature.
3. Reduction of 2 Election Officials at each polling place in April, from 11 to 9 officials.
4. Election supply and maintenance agreement savings associated with the purchase of new electronic election equipment.
5. Funding for an AASPIRE Intern to improve and expand our voter outreach program.
TREASURER – DEPARTMENT 46
Documents submitted
Main Budget Document
Reduction No 1 bank charges
Currently our bank charge expense is running below the budgeted amount. My preference would be to reduce that line very modestly for 2014. This proposal would reduce that line by an additional $9,000. The risk is that our current contract is up in June of 2014. We do not have a way of gauging what the changes in the new contract will be.
Reduction No 2 transaction fee increase
$5,000 – n 2010 an online transaction fee was instituted when paying certain transactions online (parking tickets, municiapl court citations, and bus passes purchases). This fee has been $ .25. This proposal would increase that fee to $ .30.
Reduction No 3 postage decrease
The treasurer’s submitted budget for 2014 actually shows a small increase, reflecting increased actual costs. This proposal reduces that by $5,000 based on the assumption that we are able to transition approximately 10% of the taxpayers to accept online delivery of their tax bills.
Supplement Hourly Admin Clerk
$15,629 With the advent of monthly billing by the water utility, the treasurer’s office will see a sixfold increase in payment processing. The long-term plan is to migrate customers to pay their bills electronically. However, it will take time to put systems in place to achieve this. Therefore, in the short-term, we need the additional staff to perform preliminary work on the payments in the morning, so that our remittance processor can process the payments in the late morning/early afternno.
Budget Highlights
1 . The most significant change reflected in this budget is accommodating the additional work involved for the water utility as they move to monthly billing in the first half of 2014. These changes were actually reflected in the 2013 budget, but the utility fell behind its original schedule and did not begin monthly billing during 2013. An accompanying supplemental request deals with adding a part-time hourly staff member to help with the additional processing.
