Mayor Satya-Rhodes and the Madison City Council passed an amendment to the 2026 budget to keep the Madison property tax increase low on Tuesday when they approved a capital and operating budget for 2026.
The amendment raises the city’s portion of an average property tax bill by about $2.50 per month, or $30 annually, on a home valued at $481,300. It amounts to the lowest tax rate in the city in the last four decades.
“We are prudently using our unassigned fund balance to keep the increase in property taxes as low as possible while maintaining core services. The budget also includes a five-year plan to continue to address the structural deficit caused by state-imposed limits in future years. This will help Madison avoid painful service cuts that will disproportionately impact our most vulnerable residents,” Rhodes-Conway said in a statement.
The budget also includes what the city called “an unprecedented investment” in homeless services with $1.7 million in support for the new homeless shelter on Bartillon Drive.
