I'll be honest, I'm not typically a snow curmudgeon. I live in a Wisconsin city that was hit with a boatload of snow that was then plastered with ice. Clean up is going to be very difficult. I shrugged off the early complaints by some local cranky customers and chose to give the city the benefit of the doubt.

Then Tuesday came around and I had to drive my car downtown and turn onto the rather highly used section of Frances that connects University and West Johnson. That was when I joined the griping chorus. This street, in one of the busiest areas of Madison, had become the equivalent of an unpaved rural back road. Four days out (and one additional fluffy snowfall in between) the roads are finally in a reasonable state of navigation. There are many accusations and theories being tossed around as to why the plow job was so slow, but one I have yet to hear concerns the plow to street mileage ratio.

Budget season is well underway and the Mayor would like to hear your input. He is offering up three opportunities in the month of August for Madisonians to bend his ear on where we should and shouldn't be spending our money. Full release and dates below:

As the Common Council prepares to debate the city budget tomorrow the mayor's office has released this press release concerning his position and his feelings going in. See all of the recent information on the City Budget by clicking "City Budget" above:

Progressive Dane issued a statement this weekend supporting Mayor Dave Cieslewicz's budget proposal on first review. Read the release here and below.

The most recent budget press release from the mayor's office details plans for a "comprehensive approach" to public safety. Two million dollars will be put towards the Madison police as well as reinforcing community service programs. The full release is below:

Tonight, among other things (like Section 8 and a resolution to put a Bring our Troops Home question on the County ballot at the County Board meeting, plus a meeting on Streetcars ) the Mayor is also hosting his first Build Your Own Budget meeting. (Tho you wouldn't know it by looking at the City's website or the many press releases that the Mayor's office puts out. While I'm making parenthetical comments - note how the budget meetings all conflict with the Streetcar meetings.)

The below is a release from the Mayor's office highlighting some parts of the proposed city budget that will go before the City Council tonight (as well as a vote on Halloween so it should be a long and occasionally exciting night - don't miss it!):

From the office of the Mayor:

It seems that quite a few people are coming here to read the files Brenda Konkel uploaded concerning the city budget. In order to continue being a resource for your budgetary interests we will attempt to keep bringing you documents and information as it comes out (remember, click "City Budget" above to find all of the city budget documents). For example, this just in from the office of the Mayor:

Mayor Announces Funding for Well #29 Filter in Capital Budget

Brenda Konkel has been loading tons of city budget information on Dane101. In order to make it easier for readers to find this pile of information, we have created a new "term" = "City Budget." If you click on "City Budget" above it will sort all of the "City Budget" posts into one neat and handy section. Three cheers for an informed populace!

Today's contribution is the Capital Budget requests. Generally speaking, the capital budget includes projects that are long term investments in our community or items that last more than 10 years. Often we borrow money to pay for these projects and then pay it back over the next 10 years. These budgets are projected out over the next 5 years so you can see anticipated capital budgets for the next 5 years. Operating budget requests that met the Mayor's 3% cut target are here and the additional or supplemental requests are here.

Police and Fire were exempt from the request for a 3% cut that all the other departments were subjected to . . . and yet, check out all of their additional requests . . .

Yesterday I posted what the departments requested to be in the budget, today . . . here's the things that didn't make it. It's a long list . . .

If you see things here that you think should be supported, you should go to any of the following meetings:

TONIGHT!! Downtown Public Library - 201 W Mifflin 6:00
Mayor's Public Hearing on the Budget

or the following meetings with the Mayor:

Hello Dane 101 Readers . . . it's been a while . . . I"ve been busy with multiple other blogs, but I'm back . . . partly because I feel guilty since Dane101 is what got me blogging in the first place and I feel like I should be contributing, partly because I have a good reason to blog here cuz its a great topic and partly because I couldn't figure out another technology to get this information out there quickly.

So, here's what I have . . . all of the department requests for the budget. The reason this is so important is because tomorrow the Mayor is having a public hearing on his budget, and if you are interested in testifying, its helpful to actually have some information. So here it is (ed. note: open this story and scroll down, there are 43 attachments at the end)!

Below are the 2007 operating budget guidelines set out by the mayor to Madison city department heads. Feel free to discuss: