Budget Process - City of Madison, Wisconsin

Results Overview

Mayor Soglin and Council President Lauren Cnare met in the spring of 2011 to discuss ways to improve citizen involvement in the 2012 budget deliberations process. Out of those initial discussions a team of City staff, alders and representatives from the Mayor’s Office was formed to develop a process for conducting Community Budget Conversations throughout the City.

Five Community Budget Conversations were held in July and August of 2011. Topics and dates for the conversations were:

Community Development and Services | July 26, 2011 Watch now »
Administration | August 1, 2011 Watch now »
Infrastructure | August 16, 2011 Watch now »
Community Facilities & Parks (Recreation) | August 22, 2011 Watch now »
Public Safety | August 31, 2011 Watch now »

Attendance varied, but participant numbers ranged from 50-130 people at each conversation, with an overall estimate of around 550 people taking part in all the conversations.

The web survey provided an additional participation opportunity to people who could not attend a specific meeting or who wanted to give feedback on the entire set of City services. Overall, 1,563 commented on some part of the survey, with 731 people "completing" all parts of the survey.

The Community Budget Conversations and web survey were intended to be a qualitative experience, and not a representative sampling of the community. Because participation was voluntary, results are not statistically accurate.

Complete Report to Mayor Soglin and Common Council (PDF)

Community Conversations

Participants were educated on the City budget process and provided feedback on the importance of specific values and City services. Participants were asked to take part in a values exercise and to also rate services as "low," "medium" or "high" importance to "You," "Your Neighborhood" and "Your City." At the end of each conversation, there was a discussion on what people had learned and what type of information they would like the Mayor and Common Council to take into account.

Website Survey

The website survey provided an additional participation opportunity to people who could not attend a specific meeting or who wanted to give feedback on the entire set of City services. Overall, 1,563 commented on some part of the survey, with 731 people "completing" all parts of the survey (participants had the choice to skip over sections of survey, so not all parts of the survey were responded to by all participants).

Website Survey Services Results by Category (PDF)
Website Survey Services Results A to Z (PDF)
Website Survey Complete Data (PDF)

Values

Participants were asked to rank all the values on a matrix of "low," "medium" and "high" importance to "You," "Your Neighborhood" and "Your City." This differs from the ranking of 1-6 offered at the last four conversations. The Values statements are ranked according to the "high" importance to "Your City" responses.

Community Budget Conversations Values Results (PDF)
Website Survey Values Results (PDF)

30 Services

Data was compiled into a list of 30 services by the greatest percentage of total responses that rated them of "high" importance for "Your City" and the 30 services with the lowest percentage rated "high" importance for "Your City".