How much does it cost to keep a city running? About $477.5 million next year, according to Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway’s executive operating budget proposal.

City leaders will be putting the finishing touches on next year’s operating and capital budgets for the next month. As one step in that process, city department heads make their case for agency funding to members of the finance committee, who then make their budget recommendations to the full council, which is set to vote on a final budget the second week of November. Isthmus tuned in to two evenings of briefings earlier this week.

The mayor’s operating budget proposal is largely a “cost to continue” budget, which means keeping funding fairly static, and there are few new big-ticket items. In introducing her budget proposal earlier this month, the mayor highlighted an expedited body-worn camera program for Madison police, partially funded by a $350,000 grant from the Madison Community Foundation; a city-wide compensation study; and annualized investments in recently launched initiatives like a tenth city ambulance and the recently opened Imagination Center library.

At the finance committee, departmental leaders shared statistics from Results Madison, a city initiative that is new to this year’s budget process and aims to give the public more data for city outcomes.

They also shared budget bites. Here are 10 of those.

1. The city clerk’s office is storing election equipment just off the Beltline. A reorganization following significant staffing changes has “helped tremendously,” says Deputy Clerk Gretchen Coleman. But there was some confusion when Ald. Mike Verveer pressed for more details on the clerk’s temporary storage plan for election equipment. Could that equipment be permanently housed at the county’s new elections center, being built at the former Ale Asylum brewery on Pankratz Street? “We don’t have a signed agreement,” interjected Mayor Rhodes-Conway, but the city is “in conversation” with the county clerk’s office, so stay tuned on this one. Total proposed operating budget for the clerk’s office: $3.63 million. (Jump to city clerk briefing.)

2. The city assessor says she’s saving you $500. 960 property owners objected to their property assessments in 2025, and went on to have them reviewed by the board of assessors. From there, just 91 went on to a second round at the board of review. 20 went on to sue in circuit court, and every one of those 20 was a commercial property. “The untold story in these numbers is the prevention of value shifting out of the commercial class,” city assessor Michelle Drea said. In a review of appeals from 2020 to 2025, she estimates $1.5 billion would have “shifted out” of the commercial class if her office hadn’t defended its assessments. That equates to $30 million in taxes residential owners would have had to pay — or about $500 per residential parcel. Total proposed operating budget for the city assessor: $4.13 million. (Jump to city assessor briefing.)

3. The parks division is nixing the postcard. The parks division will stop mailing postcards for public meetings, and nix its postage budget for them, said Superintendent Eric Knepp.“If you were to do the math on total [public meeting] attendees and assumed that everyone came because of a postcard — which is not true — it’s about $43 per person,” Knepp added, promising to enhance other ways of delivering that information. Total proposed operating budget for the parks division: $23 million. (Jump to parks division briefing.)

4. 911 calls for medical help are outpacing population growth. Since 2021, there’s been a 31% increase in 911 calls for EMS, fire, or special rescue — nearly double the rate of population growth in that time, said Madison Fire Department Chief Chris Carbon. And last year, there were 1,047 instances when the fire department had either one or zero ambulances available to respond to a 911 call. He expects that number to decrease now that the fire department has added a tenth ambulance. Total proposed operating budget for the fire department: $83.4 million. (Jump to fire department briefing.)

5. Developing area plans takes one quarter of total staff planners’ time. In 2022, the city’s planning division embarked on a project to carve the city into 12 slices, and develop area plans for each slice. So far, planning staff have completed four area plans, but it takes a significant amount of dedicated staff time, said planning division director Meagan Tuttle. The office is also working on how it will comply with a new “truth in planning” law approved by the state Legislature in April. Total proposed operating budget for the planning division: $4.32 million. (Jump to planning division briefing.)

6. Software costs rose by almost $1 million. In a nearly 10% increase over last year, rising vendor prices are sending software costs soaring as data moves from city servers to subscription-based cloud services. “By moving to the cloud, we’re just supporting technology in a different way,” says IT director Sarah Edgerton, “but it’s not getting rid of all of our infrastructure.” Just this summer, city IT staff completed four migrations, including for its asset management and timekeeping systems. Total proposed operating budget for IT: $12.8 million. (Jump to information technology briefing.)

7. Regional bus service at the redeveloped State Street ramp is delayed. The project at 415 N. Lake St. is finished, and the garage officially opened in late August. The regional transportation terminal will also feature bus service from four companies, but opening that service is dragging past a mid-October expected launch. Parking division director Stefanie Cox says at least one company will begin operating in November. Total parking utility budget: $20.4 million. (Jump to parking division briefing.)

8. It’s a “mixed bag of challenges” for the bus system. Madison Metro Transit General Manager Jamie Acton was pressed over instances of cancelled bus routes. Electric buses have had more battery issues than anticipated, and diesel buses are needing more repairs as they reach the end of their life, she said, adding “mechanically, we’re having a hard time keeping up.” On a rosier note, plans are in place to buy a few new hybrid buses in 2027. Total Madison Metro Transit budget: $92.5 million. (Jump to Metro Transit briefing.)

9. It’s a state limit on budget growth, not revenue limits, that’s squeezing this year’s budget. The amount the city can raise each year is capped by state levy limits, which restrict how much the city can raise property taxes in order to raise revenue. In recent years, city leaders have blamed levy limits for squeezing the city budget, but this year’s challenge is different. Instead, it’s related to state limits on expenditures under a program called ERIP. Roughly speaking, the city would be penalized by more than $9 million if the budget grows beyond the rate of inflation. That’s a problem, since city expenses have grown faster than inflation. Before 2026, the expenditure limit was much higher than the levy limit. But in the 2026 budget and again in the 2027 budget, expenditure restraints are a much greater constraint. (Jump to budget overview.)

10. The tax rate is going down, but your property bill will still go up. The city has a historically low tax rate this year, said city finance director Dave Schmiedicke, but explaining how your bill will still go up takes some math-splaining. Here goes: The city’s property tax levy has grown by 3.4%, but the total assessed value of property across the city has grown faster, by 4.7%. That difference accounts for a slight 1.2% reduction in the mill rate, which is the number an individual’s property tax value is multiplied by in order to arrive at your share of property taxes. The average home value is $500,300, nearly 4% higher than last year. And taxes on the average-value home will increase by about $90. (Jump to budget overview.)

Final budget hearings on both the capital and operating budgets are scheduled for Nov. 10, 11 and 12. Until then, city officials will continue discussing the budget and alders could soon start proposing amendments. You can view the city’s budgets and schedule of budget deliberations at cityofmadison.com/budget.

Want to watch the agency briefings at the finance committee yourself? Replays of the Oct. 12 finance committee meeting and the Oct. 13 finance committee meeting are available on YouTube, or on Madison City Channel. Each meeting follows this briefing schedule.