What if we were to use that money to pay for staff to work with homeless people to meet their needs, what would be more effective? Is this really our city’s priorities? Before they spend this money, they should do an equity analysis!
This items is on the Board of Estimates agenda tonight and I was skeptical, but when I opened up the resolution and saw the language . . . I wanted to bang my head against the wall, I settled on a facepalm. There is no day center this summer for the most part. 2 days a week Bethel will be open and some people can go to the library if they are not banned. And then allegedly people can go to the capital, but given the hostility of the capital police, no one does that.
The resolution amends the budget as follows:
– $52,000 is moved from the Economic Development Division Budget
– $5,000 is taken from the training budget in the office of the Planning Community and Economic Development Director
– $5,000 is taken from the Placemaking budget
– $7,000 is taken from the contingent reserve
First of all, I’m surprised they are so blatant about the purpose of the funds – its is to chase people out of the area.
What if we were to use that money to pay for staff to work with homeless people to meet their needs, what would be more effective. Before they spend this money, they should do an equity analysis!
So white middle-class families don’t have to look at black homeless people because that is scary. Why are we supporting something that at times seems like blatant racism? Where is the equity analysis here? I can’t see how that would come out good.
Second of all, I’m offended about the budgeting going on here. They already got $52,000 in the budget. why are they adding $17,000? In the middle of the budget? If they are going to add $17,000 here, why can’t they add $17,000 to the Emerging Opportunities Fund that got $750,000 worth of requests for $150,000 of funds? Is there some dire need for these funds that was unforeseen? The resolution doesn’t say anything. Or did they just decide it would be nice to have a little extra cash? What process did this go through, the council couldn’t give money to the Tenant Resource Center when the state legislature changed the law for the 5th time in 4.5 years because we didn’t go through the process. Well, what process is this? $17,000 is more than we got through the Emerging Opportunities Fund process – we only got $14,000, we asked for $16,000 but all requests were reduced due to lack of funds. Are there no training needs in the Planning, Community and Economic Development Division? – I think not. Why are placemaking funds going to Downtown Madison Inc, shouldn’t they be reserved for small neighborhood groups who can’t raise that kind of cash? Why is the contingent reserve being used, don’t they have policies about how this money can and can’t be used throughout the year?. This whole thing is offensive.
Third, where’s the equity analysis? I don’t think I need to say another word beyond asking the question – why is it used sometimes to justify doing something and when there is clearly a need for an equity analysis, they skip over it?
Budgets are supposed to reflect our priorities, is this our priority as a city?
Sigh . . .
