Does the Madison Council Adopt Deficit Budgets?

Our campaign has stated that the City of Madison adopted deficit budgets in four of the past five years. Some on our council have stated that this is not the case, that at year-end, the balance in the city coffers grew, so how could there be a deficit? This is a fallacy in logic. Final financial number may have seen windfalls from increased sales tax or other sources.

According to Webster, a budget is “a statement of financial position of an administration for a definite period of time based on estimates of expenditures during the period and proposal for financing them” or basically the city’s financial plan. Based on city financial documents, the council adopted budgets that planned for deficits in four of the past five years, the exception being 2016. Dumb luck and a booming economy allowed us to not actually experience declining reserves.

Finding information on the city website is almost impossible (another thing I’ll work to cleanup when I’m elected) but the sources of this data are shown below the chart:

FY2020

Council Adopted Budget (https://www.madisonal.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3777)

Pages 18 and 19 of 117 pages

Total Revenues and Other Sources: 37,432,427

Total Expenditures and Other Uses: 41,556,206

Total – Revenues and Other Sources Over (Under) Total – Expenditures and Other Uses: (4,123,779)

FY2019

Council Adopted Budget (https://www.madisonal.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3493)

Pages 8, 9 and 10 of 106 pages

Total Revenues and Other Sources: 34,922,796

Total Expenditures and Other Uses: 39,122,435

Total – Revenues and Other Sources Over (Under) Total – Expenditures and Other Uses: (4,199,639)

FY2018

Council Adopted Budget (https://www.madisonal.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3200)

Pages 17 and 18 of 121 pages

Total Revenues and Other Sources: 33,384,878

Total Expenditures and Other Uses: 36,699,647

Total – Revenues and Other Sources Over (Under) Total – Expenditures and Other Uses: (3,314,769)

FY2017

Council Adopted Budget (https://www.madisonal.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/2928)

Pages 21 and 22 of 135 pages

Total Revenues and Other Sources: 31,623,591

Total Expenditures and Other Uses: 34,373,082

Total – Revenues and Other Sources Over (Under) Total – Expenditures and Other Uses: (2,749,491)

FY2016

Council Adopted Budget (https://www.madisonal.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/2613)

Pages 21 and 22 of 157 pages

Total Revenues and Other Sources: 30,572,799

Total Expenditures and Other Uses: 29,992,702

Total – Revenues and Other Sources Over (Under) Total – Expenditures and Other Uses: 580,097