MADISON (WKOW) — On Tuesday, Madison Mayor Satya-Rhodes Conway released her first capital budget and capital improvement plan for the 2020 year.
The $1.1 billion spending plan provides funding for 195 projects spanning from 2020 to 2025. It prioritizes bus rapid transit and affordable housing.
“We can’t turn the Isthmus into a super highway,” Rhodes-Conway said, “We need transportation options that don’t rely on the automobile, and so we need to build on our success as a transit city and grow a modern transit system that is regional, fast, and reliable.”
Rhodes-Conway’s proposal holds city debt steady, keeping it at 17 percent of the city’s budget through 2026, and lowers debt from what was requested by departments by $116 million.
Although capital spending has been reduced, the budget advances Mayor Rhodes-Conway’s priorities by:
- Making Bus Rapid Transit a reality in Madison by 2024 through providing
- funding for the capital costs from 2020 to 2023.
- Creates a new Land Banking Fund that makes $1.0 million available annually
- to acquire parcels of land that can be used for affordable housing and other
- neighborhood supporting developments, while prioritizing community
- partnerships.
- Increasing the City’s investment in flood mitigation projects with an emphasis
- on using green infrastructure in new ways to dramatically decrease the
- number of building and roadways that flood during extreme rain events.
Learn more about the 2020 Capital Budget & Capital Improvement Plan by visiting www.cityofmadison.com/budget
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