City of Madison 2025 Budget Outlook
The City of Madison has faced a budget shortfall of some degree every year for the past 14 years due to state-imposed restrictions on City revenue and growing need for services. The Finance Department recorded a four-part series to explain the fundamentals of the City’s budget and options for closing the structural deficit in February 2024. This information series was followed by five community conversations hosted by the Common Council in May and early June 2024.
On November 5, 2024, Madison voters passed the $22 million referendum resolution.
- On August 20, 2024, Common Council voted to approve a $22 million referendum resolution, which means a city referendum will be on the Nov. 5 election ballot for Madison residents. See the City's page on the referendum.
- See all past budget presentations at the City of Madison's 2025 Budget Outlook web page or review the current and past adopted City of Madison budgets, including the Mayor's 2025 Proposed Executive Operating Budget (released 10/08/24).
Library 2025 Operating Budget
November 2024: $22 Million Referendum Resolution Passes
Following the general election earlier this week, the $22 million referendum for the City of Madison has passed, meaning we will have funding to continue library services at existing levels.
“While I was working at the polls on election day, many people told me how much they appreciated and used Madison’s libraries,” said Library Director Tana Elias. “I’m grateful for the support that voters have showed for library and city services, and I’m proud of the role our library staff have played in supporting democracy throughout the election process.”
We know library services, staff, collections, technology, and spaces are a lifeline for many people in the community, and we want to thank everyone who advocated to help maintain these (and many other essential City services) over the past few months.
Common Council will finalize and adopt the 2025 Operating Budget for the City of Madison next week, though some slight changes could still take place if amendments are introduced Nov 12-14. See the Get Involved section below to share feedback with alders or speak at Common Council.
June + July 2024: Library Board Approves Operating Budget; Budget Submitted to Mayor's Office for Review
Earlier this year, Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway asked city agencies in the general and library fund categories - including Madison Public Library - to draft operating budgets with at least 5% service reductions. Madison Public Library is unique among city departments in that our budget needs to be approved by the Madison Public Library Board prior to being submitted to the Mayor's office.
The library's budget team presented two options to the Library board on July 11. After much deliberation, the Library Board passed a preliminary 2025 Operating Budget:
Cost to continue budget:
- eliminates a vacant manager position to fund the additional 2 days per week at Monroe Street Library needed to maintain service at the current 5 days per week level. Eliminating this position also helps fund two-thirds of the annual operating cost of the Dream Bus, the remainder of which is funded by the Madison Public Library Foundation through 2025
- And - assuming the cost to continue budget (without reductions) is approved by November, the library should create through vacancies 3 new system-wide positions to support the development of the Imagination Center at Reindahl Park
The Board also approved a 5% budget reduction scenario that offers required reductions in priority order:
- $120,692.63 - elimination of Sunday hours
- $323,793.35 - elimination of 3-3.5 full-time equivalent programming staff and some program services & supplies, with directions to prioritize the reductions of services/supplies over staff
- $644,205.12 - elimination of the equivalent of our evening hours, while requesting that some evening hours be preserved over morning hours so we have a mix of daytime/evening hours for the community
Italics indicate changes from the original budget presentation slides presented to the Board.
The Library Board believes strongly in the importance of libraries and knows that libraries serve as critical lifelines for neighborhoods. Because of this belief, they are committed to seeing the Imagination Center move forward, as the Reindahl Park area has long been considered a service desert. However, the Board does not want to see this happen at the expense of existing services without a deeper discussion of impacts across the city. The library will continue to explore ways to fund the operations of the Imagination Center at Reindahl Park, and you can learn more about the current plans at madpl.org/reindahl.
October: Mayor's Executive Budget is Released
On October 8, Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway released her 2025 Executive Operating Budget, which included a 1% cut ($3.4 million) for all city departments and prioritized maintaining existing service levels for Madison residents. The budget was prepared assuming that the $22 million referendum on the November 5 ballot will pass, with an alternate plan for $5.6 million in service reductions across the city if the referendum does not pass. At the Library, Sunday hours would be eliminated from Goodman South Madison and Lakeview Libraries (but remain at Central Library), and funding for library programming would be reduced by $329,000 if the referendum is not passed. This accounts for over half of our program services and supplies budget, and would mean a reduction to the number of library programs in our buildings, as well as community engagement efforts outside our buildings.
Read below to see key resources, read budget reduction FAQs, and see how you can get involved in sharing your priorities for library service with city officials.
