Ex-Madison mayor urges no vote on proposed tax hike

(The Center Square) – Madison’s former mayor is telling people to vote ‘No’ on the city’s proposed $22 million tax increase.

Former Mayor Paul Soglin, along with former Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney and former city Alderwoman Sheri Carter, held a news conference to push back on the strong support among current city leaders to raise taxes.

“There is every reason in the world,” Soglin said, “We should say no to this referendum, and expect our elected officials to work with the state on some relatively simple solutions that are not extremely costly to the state.”

Madison’s current mayor has said without the $22 million tax increase, the city will be forced to make cuts to city services.

Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway has said that includes a 5% cut across most city departments, including the police department, Madison’s transit office and the city library.

Carter, who represented southwest Madison until last year, said the city has plenty of money. She said city leaders are choosing to spend as much as they do. But she said many of Madison’s poor families don’t have the same kind of choices.

“Over half our children in the school system qualify for free or reduced lunch,” Carter said. “Can their families be generous with this referendum? Should they have to choose between the lights and saving the city?”

Soglin said Madison’s mayor and current city council got the city into a fiscal crisis, and city leaders should get themselves out.

“There is the $16 million that the mayor is already committed to if the referendum fails, and that source was from the surplus in investments from 2023,” Soflin said. “The surplus from investments from 2024 is already acknowledged at over $7 million.”

Soglin said the city shouldn’t be asking taxpayers to continue to pay more. He said property taxes and rents are already too high and raising taxes would only make the city less affordable in the future.

“We’re hearing that if Madison’s staff had grown at the same rate as the population in the last half dozen years or so, there’d be over 200 additional staff persons,” he said. “This is completely contrary to the purpose of having a city. What happens when you have a city is you get the efficiencies, the economies of density.”