The amendments in the operating budget request funds for everything from creating a new Park Volunteer coordinator position, to issuing bus passes to low-income individuals, to increasing the budget of an affordable student housing study.
One funding priority is the subject of two separate amendments, both aimed at increasing funding for Madison’s CARES program. That’s the Community Alternative Response Emergency Services, which started up last year as a way to respond to some non-violent behavioral health emergency calls without sending law enforcement.
Council President Keith Furman is the sponsor of one of two amendments seeking to expand CARES funding.
“This amendment is a continued commitment towards funding Madison’s CARE program. [It’s] an alternative to sending uniformed police officers to calls that can better be handled by social workers and paramedics,” says Furman.
Both amendments seek to expand the program by creating two new positions. The first position is a community paramedic who would help act as a first responder. The other position is a program manager that would deal with the administrative side of CARES’ operations.
Additionally, the amendments also want funds to contract a crisis worker for half a year and purchase supplies for the program. This expansion would allow CARES to create a new response team and operate twelve hours a day, seven days a week.
Although both amendments are seeking to expand the same program, one would use money allocated to the Madison Police Department to fund CARES. The other would fund CARES independently.
The amendment co-sponsored by Alder Furman is looking to reallocate funds from the Madison Police Department. That amendment would use money the city has put aside to recruit more police officers through a federal grant known as “COPS”.
Alder Furman says that reallocating the budget is essential if the city wants to keep costs down.
“That grant although is helpful, and the funding from the federal government is helpful for the first few years, it very quickly ends up being a very expensive addition to our budget when we are experiencing very strong, structural deficit that is only going to get worse in the next few years,” says Furman.
Alder Yanette Figueroa-Cole is the other co-sponsor of the amendment . She tells W-O-R-T today that the removal of the COPS program in the proposal is not about taking from police, which she describes as more than generous. Instead, she says she supports CARES because, “It is not about taking from police… It is about allocating funding to other agencies with the expertise to deal with the issues. When it comes to youth engagement MPD should serve as a supporting role not lead the efforts. The same applies to mental health, that is why I support CARES.”
“Once [the COPS grant] runs its course, it will add an additional $574,000 to the police budget. That is over half a million dollars that won’t be able to be invested in libraries, food access, local businesses, safe living conditions, parks and youth programming,” adds Figueroa-Cole.
Meanwhile, another amendment – sponsored by Alders Tag Evers, Brian Benford, and Regina Vidaver as well as Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway – proposes expanding CARES without adjusting the budget for the Madison Police Department.
Budget deliberations begin tomorrow night at 5:30, when the council will hear input from the public. Deliberations will continue through Wednesday and Thursday. You can watch deliberations in-person or virtually on Madison’s City Channel.
