President’s Visit Could Cost $250K

President Barack Obama’s visit to Madison Thursday is expected to cost taxpayers around $250,000. The money comes mainly out of the city’s police department budget. Mayor Paul Soglin says in the past he has made unsuccessful attempts to charge the federal government and campaigns, “The bottom line is this. Presidents and vice presidents go to hundreds and hundreds of cities during the period of their office holding. Presidential candidates, vice presidential candidates do the same thing. Every municipality is faced with this kind of a cost, and it’s something that is not going to be recovered.”

Obama’s last visit to Madison cost $260,000 thousand. Soglin says even with the current stress on the city budget, saying no to a presidential visit was not an option.