Progressive Dane announced its involvement with the Citizens Against Subsidized Hotels, CA$H, Thursday to campaign for a binding referendum on the November ballot that seeks to give Madison citizens more decision-making power on the city’s large-scale financial endeavors.
Progressive Dane and CA$H will need at least 16,000 signatures on the “Stop Hotel Boondoggle” petitions to have their question placed on the November ballot, according to Matt Kozlowski, treasurer of the Progressive Dane. The petitions will be distributed starting May 1.
“This referendum would require the city to pose the question to voters whenever they wanted to spend more than $10 million on a development project whenever they want to use city resources,” Kozlowski said. The poll would also require the city to receive public approval for supplying developers with large amounts of land.
The Judge Doyle Square project has been a recent topic of contention for Madison taxpayers funding the project through tax incremental financing. According to Kozlowski, the latest proposal requested approximately $60 million in taxpayers’ money.
“This, as far as I’m aware, is the largest city investment in a development project,” Kozlowski said.
The last time Madison has seen a substantial city investment was for the Edgewater Hotel on Langdon Street. The funding for the project was a fraction of the JDS development and created “quite a bit of uproar,” according to Kozlowski.
“We’re hoping [the referendum] will spur alders to come back to the table, seek more input from the public and allow our voices to be heard in the process,” Kozlowski said.
