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Interim Dane County Executive Jamie Kuhn Outlines 2025 Budget Proposal

Interim Dane County Executive Jamie Kuhn released her county budget proposal this morning. The proposal totals upwards of $903 million - a nearly 7% drop in spending compared to the current budget. County Executive Kuhn told WORT News Producer Faye Parks this afternoon that Dane County – like countless other municipalities in the state – is trying to stay afloat despite flattening revenue. Image courtesy: Brian Standing / WORT News.

Broadcast on:: 18 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: other

All right. I have Interim County Executive Jamie Coon on the line. Thank you for joining me. Good afternoon. So you're making your 2025 budget proposal as an Interim County Executive, finishing out Joe Priesi's last term after his retirement. So Dane County voters will decide on the next executive in the November election. Is that challenging running a budget that you know someone else will ultimately be tasked with implementing? No, not at all. We have some amazing department heads and staff at Dane County who really are the blind for the county in regard to the work that we have to do and the people that we serve. So we are going to continue to stick to our core mission which is making sure that we have access to quality services. So budgets are by nature very long detailed documents. Can you give us the broad overview of your 2025 proposal? What are your priorities? Yeah, like I said, our priorities are to really make sure that we are strengthening our connections and families in Dane County across the county in various avenues. And as you know, we do all kinds of work for the community all the way from, you know, the airport to the zoo. We are also connecting families to food and job support, coordinating nutrition, your nutrition and really just working with families in the community to problem solve and make sure that they have access to resources. So our priorities are really to make sure that we are investing in the areas of highest need and fill any gaps that exist in current service. So a couple of our highlights for this budget are ensuring that we are able to do more work through our Joining Forces for Families program with housing resources. We are also increasing capacity at our veteran's services. We are one of the three counties in Wisconsin with the highest number of veterans and we know we can do more to help serve them. So we will be adding capacity as the veteran's service office. And we are also going to be supporting some of our partnerships such as partnerships that we have currently with Sunshine Place in February, which is a local food pantry and community resource hub that is serving Eastern Green County. And we are going to be investing in their expansion so that they can do more great work. A couple of other highlights. We're going to be increasing language access through new bilingual positions and multiple departments across the county, increasing access and connections for individuals in our victim witness unit, as well as our reentry and jail diversion programs. We are going to be committing another 10 million dollars to the Affordable Housing Fund, which is working to continue to address the Affordable Housing Challenges. 10 million dollars in our Bayon County Conservation Fund, which offers grants to partners to purchase land with protection and conservation, as well as funding improvements at the Lion Energy Center campus so that we can also move forward with the next steps for exhibition hall expansion. And then generally speaking, we are investing approximately 16.6 million dollars in county highway projects. So you mentioned the Affordable Housing Fund. Of course, we hear often just how expensive housing has become in Dane County. What are the goals, the primary goals behind supporting this fund? What do you hope to see happen over the next year when it comes to affordable housing in our county? Well, the fund is already in effect. From the previous budget, there were funds put in there to work with developers, community leaders, to generate resources to ensure that we are building more affordable housing units across the county. So we are going to continue to invest in that fund, which again is really is a partnership in the community. Housing is an issue that all of us have to work on affordable housing. And so we are working across the community and not just in County, but across the community. We are just supplying some of the funds to help make those developments possible. So your budget proposal, if approved as is, would bring down county spending by about 7% compared to the current budget? And capital spending would drop by nearly 50%. Why bring down county spending now? Well, as you know, many municipalities and counties across the state are having to grapple with flattening revenues. And we are no different. And so we are wanting to make sure that we are being responsible, taxpayer dollars, and continue to fund the core services that we need to, while understanding and recognizing the situation that families are in across the county. I understand and correct me if I've got this wrong, but it looks like the proposal would bring down taxes countywide compared to the current rate, but then raise the property tax levy in Madison by nearly one and a half percent. Is that accurate? And if so, what exactly is the difference there? So the overall budget, the overall amount of the budget that we are expanding in this budget is 6.7% lower than in 2024. However, there is still an increase on the average Madison homeowner of $17 and a levy increase of 1.4%, but that is lower than in previous years. I see. Okay. And so that comes, of course, as the Madison School District and the city will both ask voters to approve higher taxes to balance their budgets next year. Did you coordinate with city and local leaders at all while drafting this proposal? And are you concerned about the tax burden on the average Madison resident? So all budgets are not the same. And obviously, we understand that different levels of government have different challenges as well as different services that they have to consider when they're doing their budget. So we are lucky that we are not in the same position and we will not be running a referendum this year, but we recognize the challenges with other governments face. So I think that covers all of my questions, but is there anything else you'd like to add? I just like to say that, you know, again, this is a collaborative effort amongst stakeholders, partners, county board supervisors, and our departments to really try to put forward a budget that is not only investing in filling gaps in services and continuing our core services, but as I said, they're respecting and making sure we are being responsible taxpayer dollars. So I'm proud of the work that everyone has done through this collaboration to get the budget ready for introduction and look forward to working with the county board through the next stages in the process. Thank you again for agreeing to speak with me, County Executive Coon. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. That was interim Dane County Executive, Jamie Coon, on her 2025 budget proposal released today. The proposal now heads the county board, and according to a press release from the the Office of the County Executive, final passage of the budget is scheduled for late October.