Although the cost of Monday’s rally for President Barack Obama was free to attend, the city of Madison will have to pick up the charges for much of the labor required to make the event possible.
While the Obama for America campaign will pay the city for some costs, such as street use permits, barricades and clean-up after the event, Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said the campaign does not pay for additional security.
Verveer said the greatest cost for an event such as a presidential visit is the additional police presence required by the United States Secret Service.
“It is fully expected that the local police agency cooperate if asked by the secret service,” Verveer said. “There is no expectation whatsoever of reimbursement.”
In addition to Madison Police Department officers monitoring the event area on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and around Capitol Square, University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department, Capitol Police, Fitchburg Police Department officers and Dane County Sheriff’s deputies were present at the rally.
Obama’s Oct. 4 rally on Bascom Hill caused over $100,000 in police enforcement costs and in 2010, additional police enforcement for Obama’s visit to Library Mall cost the city $185,543.
To pay for these “extraordinary expenses,” the city utilizes its contingency and “rainy day” funds, which are additional funds set aside for unplanned expenses, according to Verveer.
Ald. Scott Resnick, District 8, said the presidential visit provided a “small economic boost” in the downtown area with many people from the rally spending money at restaurants and stores around the Capitol.
Downtown businesses such as Teddywedgers, 101 State St., and Starbucks, 1 E. Main St., reported an increase in sales because of the approximately 18,000 people in attendance at the rally.
“I just love it when he have special events down here like this,” Teddywedgers owner Raymond Johnson said. “It helps business quite a bit.”
Starbucks manager Scott Longley said although the store saw fewer of its regular customers, the Monday rally increased business on one of its typically slower days.
