Madison’s 2026 capital budget proposal spends less, focuses on big city projects

MADISON, Wis. (CIVIC MEDIA) – The mayor has unveiled Madison’s 2026 Capital Budget proposal, which spends less money than 2025’s capital budget. 

The capital budget focuses exclusively on buildings and facilities, not ongoing services or employee pay. The 2026 capital budget would cost the city $285 million. 

The 2026 plan is $133 million lower than the 2025 capital budget. It relies on much less money from the federal government. 

“The current federal government has recently eliminated many financial tools that would have made our city more resilient against climate change, and helped to modernize our infrastructure. But the good news is the city of Madison is financially healthy,” said Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway (D – Madison). “We once again received a AAA bond rating from Moody’s that allows the city to borrow at the lowest possible interest rate. Our economy continues to outpace the rest of Wisconsin.”

This proposal includes money to redevelop public housing in The Triangle, in the West Wash and Regent area; replace Fire Station 6 with a new facility; build the long-awaited Imagination Center in Reindahl Park and fund the new streets center on the city’s west side.

“[An] essential goal of this year’s multi year capital improvement plan is to identify investments that will yield savings in future operating projects,” the mayor said. “The new streets facility that we will be building on the far west side is going to improve the efficiency of our operations. Once completed, it will cut hundreds of hours per year in travel time that it takes for both trash and recycling … this efficiency will save half a million dollars in fuel costs per year, and even more cost savings as Madison continues to grow. As well as reducing the emissions that those trips produce.” 

City agencies asked for $73 million more, but those projects were cut out of this year’s budget and tentatively moved to future ones. 

“I thought that Parks was being a little too ambitious with some of their projected timing. So we pushed a couple projects out a couple of years into the capital improvement plan,” Rhodes-Conway said. “It’s really important to me that what we show the community in the budget is what they can actually expect. We don’t want folks to get excited about a project that staff really don’t have the capacity to deliver on, and so we want to be as realistic in our budgeting as possible.”

The capital budget proposal is lower than it was last year, but it borrows less than a million dollars more than the previous capital budget. 

The proposal first heads to the city’s Finance Committee, then to the full Common Council. It’s expected to be adopted in November.