Dripping with inebriation, ribbons of night curled in her hair and heavy mascara highlighting her decadent eyes, State Street always sports her best diversions on Halloween. Everyone loves it—except her father, Madison, who foots the bill every year, and after last year's bill, he's putting his foot down and charging her guests a $5 fee.
In 2005 the city of Madison spent nearly $600,000 policing an unsponsored Halloween, continuing a reoccurring trend of rising costs footed by the city. For the upcoming 2006 event, Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz endeavored to make Halloween safer and less costly through heightened security and admittance fees. Approximately one third of the costs could be offset by the fee, according to city of Madison's webpage regarding Halloween, http://www.cityofmadison.com/halloween/faq.cfm.
This $5 fee was not always part of the plan to help offset the holiday's costs. The State Street business community favored this admission charge as an alternative to the original proposal of billing all properties special assessments to cover Halloween expenses, according to Ald. Austin King, District 8.
Revisions were also made to accommodate for businesses. While originally proposed to be earlier, State Street will be gated at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 28 to accommodate for State Street's dinner crowds to allow entry without admission.
In terms of revenue, King believes businesses will still be profitable, despite the admission fees.
""This is one of the most prosperous nights of the year for the downtown night life industry,"" King said. ""I don't know if they'll be able to tell the difference because they make so much money on Halloween.""
As an unsponsored event, Halloween has become vulnerable to admission fees unlike other large sponsored events. Rhythm and Booms, another large event in Madison, remains free because its sponsor pays the city for its free services such as law enforcement. ""With Mifflin and Halloween, the problem is that there's no sponsor,"" King said. ""There's no organization that we can bill.""
In terms of offsetting costs, the admission fee will serve its purpose. However, other concerns arise regarding public safety.
""I didn't think it was the wisest course of action in terms of public safety,"" said King, who worries about displacing Halloween to denser residential areas like Langdon Street.
""My strongest preference would be to have those problems on State Street,"" King said. However, additional police officers will be present in downtown Madison to correct displacement if this problem occurs.
As a result of State Street admissions on Halloween, King said he also worries that some may make reform arguments for The Mifflin Street Party.
""I'm really worried that conservatives on the account are going to come back next spring and say this $5 dollar thing worked well for Halloween, let's do it for Mifflin,"" King said. ""It would be unjustifiable in many ways but I wouldn't be surprised to hear that argument made.""
Over 1000 tickets were sold already, and will continue to sell until Oct. 27 near Library Mall and the Parks Office, 215 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Day of tickets will sell from 1:00 p.m. until close at three locations on State Street and library mall.
