Mayor Dave Cieslewicz chose not to veto the Overture Center refinancing plan Monday afternoon, all but killing any chance of the city owning the building.
Cieslewicz expressed 'significant reservations' about the plan but decided not to veto on the grounds he would be overturned in the City Council. Needing a two-thirds majority'or 14 aldermanic votes'to overturn a veto, the council likely would have upheld the refinancing plan in the face of the mayor's objections.
At last week's Council meeting, alders voted 15-5 to support refinancing.
The refinancing plan did not garner full support from the City Council, however. Ald. Austin King, District 8, who voted for the refinancing but said he would not participate in an effort to overturn a mayoral veto, saw the vote as a lose-lose proposition.
'They were two bad options and the Council was forced to pick,' King said. 'I do not have a lot of confidence in the refinancing plan.'
The other option would have had the city purchase the Overture Center for $1 after the building's trust was liquidated to pay for construction costs. That would have left the city and its taxpayers responsible for all Overture Center maintenance costs.
Overture Center officials have assured Cieslewicz that they will try to draw financial support from outside of Madison. Cieslewicz has been a strong critic of the lack of regional support for the building, claiming that Madisonians already have to pay more than they should and that people from Madison's surrounding areas aren't paying nearly enough.
Jerry Frautschi, the man whose financial contributions have paid for most of the Overture Center to this point and whose money makes up the bulk of the refinancing plan, has also agreed to provide another $2.5 million should the need arise. This provides more security for Cieslewicz, who said he fears that a slumping stock market will kill the refinancing plan and force the city to take control at a considerable cost'a risk the City Council voted to take.
'You don't win 'em all,' Cieslewicz's spokesperson George Twigg said. And according to King, nobody can blame the mayor if the refinancing plan fails to come through. 'Now he can say, 'I told you so,'' King said.
