How does Madison plan to raise the money necessary for aesthetic street improvements in the proposed State Street design plan?
\I don't know exactly,"" said Susan Schmitz, president of Downtown Madison Inc. ""Once it goes through all the committees and commissions ... the next challenge that's even larger is how to pay for it.""
Schmitz said DMI, which advocates business interests, has not been approached to raise funds toward the State Street project.
City Planner Mark Olinger said many of the funding sources remain unclear because the redesign is still in its approval phases.
""Our general sense is that we'll spend most of 2002 doing design work for the first phase, so we won't begin construction until 2003,"" he said, adding that the project will eventually have several financial sources.
""It will be a combination of some local, some federal [funding],"" Olinger said. ""We're looking at a number of possibilities.""
One possibility includes ""considerable"" city funding, according to Ryan Mulcahy, an assistant to Mayor Sue Bauman.
""The city is assigning $1 million annually for the next six years,"" Mulcahy said of the project, which he estimated at a cost of $12 million to $15 million through its completion.
""[However,] it's going to depend on a variety of sources'taxpayer dollars and state and federal money,"" he added.
Olinger said Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., allocated $1 million in federal funds for State Street this summer. He added that in a previous redesign, a number of groups picked up the tab.
""When it was first done 25 years ago,"" he said, ""it was supposed to be split [with part] assessed against the owners, a percentage paid by the city and a percentage by the government.""
Olinger added that the federal government takes an interest in projects like the redesign because Madison provides public buses on the street.
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said the city will probably try to get as much federal funding for the renovations as possible.
""Eighty percent of the State Street plan [has been] funded by Federal Transit Administration funding,"" he said.
Verveer added that not all of the $1 million per year is earmarked for the redesign initiative.
""The million dollar figure ... is by no means a done deal,"" he said. ""It's just a placeholder, just a guess.""
Verveer added that a federal program under which the city qualifies to receive funding would grant 80 percent to every 20 percent the city provides.
""It would also be nice if our congressional delegation would be able to get the specific money for State Street,"" he said.
