Police, streets, parks and other Madison agencies are offering grim scenarios of service cuts and layoffs to avert a major property tax increase for next year. 

Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, who asked agencies to determine the cost to continue current operations next year and then identify 5 percent cuts from that sum, is now pouring over sobering options.

To cut 5 percent, police would eliminate 26 officers and drop the school crossing guard program, and the Fire Department wouldn't open a new station and would lay off 18 firefighters, cut six firefighter positions that would be involved in operating a new ambulance and delay a recruit class. 

Metro Transit would raise fares from $1.50 to $2. The Streets Division would wait until there's 4 inches of snow before plowing side streets, wait two weeks to collect large items and cut other services. Parks would reduce maintenance, scale-back lifeguard services, close small skating rinks and more.

Money for social service agencies and child-care tuition would be slashed by $290,000.

The library would close the Monroe Street branch and cut hours Downtown and at other branches.

Together, the agency responses "paint a picture of just how difficult the budget is going to be," Cieslewicz said. "I'm not going to lay off police officers or firefighters, or eliminate crossing guards, but everything else is on the table."

'Bone and muscle'

Anxious agencies are hoping to avoid deep cuts.

"We don't have much fluff anymore. We're cutting bone and muscle," Streets Division spokesman George Dreckmann said. "We're always concerned. (But) the mayor has talked about prioritizing basic services. That's what we do."

Kevin Briski, the city's new Parks superintendent, said, the cuts would mean less mowing and weeding in parks, cemeteries and medians, and less frequent cleaning of shelters and rest rooms.

"You're stepping away from a lot of service," he said.

Metro Transit General Manager Chuck Kamp doesn't want a 50 cent fare increase. "It would be too significant a change in a one-year-period," he said.

Managers have been asked to outline substantial service cuts many times in recent years, but the city has always found a way to largely avoid them.

But no relief seems on the horizon this year.

"There has been no good news," the mayor said. "If anything, things are a bit dimmer."

Fuel prices, initially thought to be $1.75 million higher, could be twice that amount, he said.

Cieslewicz, who will propose an operating budget in October, is dealing with a grim financial landscape darkened by a bad economy, lower building permit income and interest rates, high fuel prices and rising capital debt.

The City Council will approve a budget in November.

"A number of budgets have been challenging," said council President Tim Bruer, the senior member. "No budget compares to this."

Effect on taxes

To continue operations and keep promises, the city would have to increase spending 8.7 percent to $243.9 million, and raise city taxes an "unacceptable" 10.4 percent to $1,989 on the average $247,974 home. That would be the highest tax increase on the average home since at least 1979.

The corresponding 15.8 percent increase in tax collections to $176.8 million also would be the largest such hike in at least two decades.

Cieslewicz hopes to limit a tax increase on the average home to 4 percent, roughly the rate of inflation and the average increase for the past 10 years. That would mean a 9.1 percent increase in tax collections.

But to do so would require $10.2 million in across-the-board cuts from agencies.

To ease the impact, the mayor suggests using $4.9 million from the city's "rainy day" fund — more than double the current $2 million — and getting $1 million more from the room tax, fees and fines.

But those revenues still leave a $6.3 million gap to be covered by cuts or other new income.

To help set priorities, Cieslewicz asked agencies to determine the cost of continuing services — with some adjustments — and then set priorities to cut 5 percent from that sum. Such an across-the-board cut — including police and fire services — would produce about $10 million.

But the mayor's vow to protect police and fire personnel — labor intensive agencies that account for 40 percent of the total budget — creates more pressure to cut elsewhere.

"There are no sacred cows," Bruer said, adding that even police and fire will be asked to create efficiencies and cut costs.

Cieslewicz, meanwhile, isn't fixed on holding to a 4 percent tax increase for the average home. "I'm willing to give on that," he said.

Past warnings

In the past, mayors have warned of pending budget woes and agencies have identified cuts that hit bone.

But for the most part, the city got by.

In early 2002, with the state facing a $1.1 billion deficit and former Gov. Scott McCallum proposing to phase out shared revenue to municipalities, then mayor Sue Bauman asked agencies to identify 5 percent cuts. The response was similar to the current one, with police not filling 19 vacancies and laying off another 19 officers, the Fire Department laying off or changing 30 positions, Madison Metro cutting service and more.

But the state danced out of its problem using one-time revenue and the city was largely spared. Later that year, Bauman used one-time moves to offer a budget for 2003 that added firefighters, boosted community services and cut the average homeowner's tax bill.

In 2005, Cieslewicz sought agency budgets with 3 percent cuts and saw the same difficult options. In the end, the budget added police, preserved firefighters and most other agencies, and cut the streets and parks divisions without significantly reducing services.

Even now, Bauman's move in 2002 to shift costs for storm water management to a special utility is easing pressure on the operating budget, shaving $8.7 million from the property tax bill this year.

"We have always had challenges," city comptroller Dean Brasser said. "(But) we've always had something to help mitigate the difficulty. Right now, we don't have anything of the fashion we know of."

Cieslewicz said, "This is going to be a tough year for us. 2010 may not be better. We all need to get though this together."