The City Council of Racine convened a special meeting to hear the Mayor's 2026 budget address, outlining a fiscal strategy focused on neighborhood investment, public safety, and infrastructure modernization amidst significant state and federal funding constraints. Mayor Mason emphasized a balanced budget grounded in community values, featuring a proposed property tax rate reduction, aggressive lead service line replacement, and a new Department of Community Safety.
Well, good evening, everyone. The hour of six o'clock. I will now call to order this special council meeting of the City Council of Racine. The first order of business is the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. If you could please join me as you are able in that Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We have one item on the agenda this evening, which is the 2026 budget address. President Horton, Vice President Harmon, and other esteemed members of the Common Council, members of the public, and those of you watching online, welcome. I say welcome to the City of Racine 2026 budget address. As I mentioned in the State of the City Address, there is one big budget challenge, the stone we must roll up hill again and again, and that is the restrictions placed upon us by state government in Madison. For nearly two decades, we have seen aid to cities frozen, locked away like some miser's gold. Two years ago, yes, we saw the state aid increase for a single year, but one year and nearly 20 does not heal the wounds that had to be inflicted, does not restore the services that were diminished, does not resurrect the neighborhoods that were ignored and left to languish in that peculiar American twilight between hope and abandonment. And on top of that, we cannot raise revenue beyond the rate of new construction growth. While we had a record year last year, that increase does not even keep pace with inflation. We're like a man running full tilt just to stand still. I want to thank the voters again for passing the referendum that allowed us to keep our firefighters. But let me speak plainly, we should not have had to have held that referendum in the first place. It was a necessity, born of neglect. Republicans in the legislature insisted on tax cuts of nearly four billion dollars that mostly went to the wealthy instead of funding our police and fire departments, our schools, human services, or health care. That leaves all of us, all of us at the local level forced to make the decision to cut services, propose referenda to raise taxes, or some unhappy combination of both. A choice between bad and worse, as Mark Twain once said. The state has a responsibility, I would argue, a moral obligation to fund local units of government. What could have been an opportunity to invest in our children's schools and the resource communities across the state need to keep us healthy and safe was squandered, distributed instead for more tax cuts to people who need them the least. As for local taxpayers, you are paying twice, once for the local services and again for the money that went to Madison that should have come home that went for the tax cuts. I do have this dream, friends, that we could begin to see that every community, whether rural or urban, has children who want to learn small businesses that want to succeed and neighborhoods that need to be kept safe. The cuts in grant funding from the federal government have started to sting as well. Congressionally directed spending has been clawed back, and grants that would have made our neighborhoods safer and more resilient have been eliminated, vanishing like morning mist. We need state and federal partners for our city to function. In spite of these disappointments, and they are disappointments that cut deep. We will persist and make a balanced budget. We must, for the alternative is unthinkable. So we have a budget that is based on our values and our vision. It's about numbers and priority, but it's about values and vision too. The things that matter when the ledgers are closed, and we ask ourselves what kind of city we are building for our children. So if we build it on our foundation, we acknowledge that Racine is blessed to be home to a diverse and hardworking community with a proud manufacturing tradition. We sit on the shores of Lake Michigan between Chicago and Milwaukee, positioned like a jewel between two great cities. This budget seeks to better position us in the region, to build on economic opportunities that surround us like ripe fruit, waiting to be picked. This budget invests in our neighborhood. Whether it is the new exciting developments like the Breakwater or Woodman's grocery store, the neighborhood home repair grants, the clean sweep program to address some of our challenged neighborhoods, or the exciting transformation happening in the Lincoln King neighborhood with the King Center Health Clinic. This budget continues to prioritize making investments in our neighborhoods, the very sinew and bone of our city. This budget is about fiscal responsibility with vision, balancing prudent spending with key investments in neighborhoods, economic development, and infrastructure that move our community forward, not recklessly, but with purpose and determination. This budget is about economic opportunity for all, addressing workforce development, small business support, and job creation, critical for a post-industrial city like ours, working to diversify its economy and write a new chapter in its long storied history. This budget invests in quality of life because we know those issues matter. We are making investments in a new King Center, parks, public safety, community services, and Lake Michigan access, the things that make Racine livable and attractive, the things that make a city more than just building and streets. This is a budget preparing for tomorrow. We are addressing infrastructure needs, roads, water systems, climate resilience, and modernization while being honest about our financial constraints. Climate mitigation is expensive but necessary given the frequency and intensity of our storms and the impacts they have for nature will not will not wait on our budget deliberations. Our departments have several goals that I want to highlight tonight. There are a few that merit special consideration and mention. The first is data-driven decision making.