Former Madison Mayor Paul Soglin in the Isthmus condemned five years of Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway’s financial decisions that he says have led to the city’s “unprecedented financial crisis.”
According to Soglin, many recent wayward city efforts have been led by white, college-educated progressives who have goals of ending racial inequities, advocating justice, and creating affordable housing, but who he says are “misguided in ignoring the pending economic crisis.”
Soglin says the pandemic is not to blame for the city’s financial state and that the American Rescue Plan Act through which the city received federal relief masked Rhodes-Conway’s poor decisions.
In November 2019, with the adoption of the 2020 budget, Soglin says Rhodes-Conway evaded a state statute prohibiting the use of borrowed funds to support the state operating budget. The operating budget was funded with $6.1 million of “reoffering premium” — additional funds from lenders on capital budget loans received by the city. In the time since, $32 million of borrowed money has been applied to the operating budget. The mounting debt will affect current and future taxpayers, says Soglin.
In addition to other financial decisions he believes are leading Madison astray, Soglin also notes that the city has previously enjoyed the ability to spend money on “good works” — or community services — because it successfully balanced public services with community needs. He says these “good works” will not be possible with the city’s financial challenges and increasingly unaffordable property taxes.
