The Wisconsin State Journal Editorial Page on Alder Zach Brandon’s view of the Mayor’s proposed 3.6% spending increase:
It’s the spirit that counts: Madison Ald. Zach Brandon wants his City Council colleagues to break with their time-honored tradition of soaking the taxpayers for a few dollars more.
Brandon is developing a list of spending items that could be cut from the Madison city budget, saving taxpayers more than $2 million. But what he proposes isn’t as important as the underlying goal: Reversing the council’s longstandin g profligacy.
Brandon, who pushed a package of cuts last year along with a spending cap that went nowhere, this time believes he can strong-arm council members with a political pledge to put a lid on city spending. He has dropped his red “tax cap” baseball- hat publicity gimmick for a modest pledge he’s circulating to council members. Brandon, of the Southwest Side’s 7th District, wants each council member to promise not to increase city spending beyond the $192.5 million that Mayor Dave Cieslewicz has already proposed. If they want to add a few dollars for a pet project, they need to subtract the money from another item in the budget.