DLGF certifies City of Madison 2025 budget; clerk-treasurer details reporting timeline and outstanding adjustments

The Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF) has certified the City of Madison’s 2025 budget, city officials said at the Jan. 21 Common Council meeting.

A city finance official told the council the certified budget order (Form 1782) is the final document units of local government receive for adopted budgets and covers the city’s 2025 appropriations. The official said the order includes budgets for all 10 townships and the incorporated municipalities in the county.

The official said the city should proceed with its adopted 2025 budget but remain cautious because some estimates used in preparing the budget — notably the circuit breaker credit rate and the public-safety local income tax (LIT) estimate — were still pending certification when the budget was adopted. “City of Madison has approximately a 20% circuit breaker,” the official said, adding that some estimates were not certified until April 2024 in the prior year.

Clerk-Treasurer Wernerson briefed the council on administrative deadlines: W-2s have been completed and distributed to employees; 1099s are being prepared and will be postmarked by Jan. 31; the city’s annual financial report (AFR), debt-management reports and government-contract reports are due to the state by the end of February. Wernerson said the clerk-treasurer’s office is working through about 2½ years of prior accounting adjustments and expects to complete month-end closings and reconciliations in the coming weeks so year-end reports can be filed on schedule.

Council minutes from the Jan. 7 meeting were approved with a correction to a recorded vote count noted in the minutes; the council recorded the correction at the Jan. 21 meeting.