Mayor Paul Soglin significantly reduced financing for the Overture Center in Madison's 2012 budget and allotted funding to tackle a ""dramatic"" city-wide increase in opiate and heroin use.
""I feel that the result is a budget that is a balance between … tough decisions and moving the city forward in the manner that our citizens expect,"" Soglin said Tuesday.
Although former Mayor Dave Cieslewicz promised the Overture Center $2 million, Soglin's 2012 budget reduced the center's financing to $1.3 million.
""It is not a surprise whatsoever,"" Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said. ""Everybody involved … expected the mayor to propose less than $2 million.""
Verveer said he plans to introduce an amendment in the coming months to grant the center an additional $500,000.
Soglin also allotted $45,000 of the city's operation budget to fund a task force on heroin and opiates, in addition to $33,276 in funding from Dane County.
According to the mayor's office, trends show a ""dramatic increase"" in heroin and opiate abuse across Madison.
Soglin said although he had to make ""tough choices,"" he was pleased the budget met his goal of avoiding layoffs in the city police department.
The mayor said this would not have been possible without newly opened negotiations on police union's contracts that helped save the city $2.5 million.
Additionally, the U.S. Dept. of Justice awarded the police department a federal grant of over $700,000, which the department will put toward a newly formed Special Investigations Unit.
According to its leader, Lt. Tom Woodmansee, the unit's goal is to identify the city's most violent repeat offenders and change their behavior through a collaborative effort between law enforcement, prosecutors and the community.
""The message to these offenders will be that we care about what happens to them but they will also be scrutinized like never before,"" Woodmansee said.
