Save WYOU: Contact Your Alder Now

WYOU needs your help now! Mayor Dave is planning in the new Madison city budget to take away half of our PEG funding (non-tax payer funds) and to give it to the government channel. The mission of WYOU--to educate people in the use of video production equipment and to give a voice to the community--will be severely if not completely diminished.

It's not too late to contact your alder and ask him/her to support an amendment that would restore $30,000 of the $70,000 cut! We have 7 or 8 votes at the moment and are working on more!

THE PLAN
1. Ask people to email allalders@cityofmadison.com in support of the amendment.
- The amendments are all here: http://legistar.cityofmadison.com/attachments/1e177046-08ce-4c9f-9a98-16684c59030c.pdf
- Sponsors at the moment are Alds. Schumacher, Rummel, Solomon, Rhodes-Conway, Skidmore, Verveer - You can thank them, and ask others to sign on.
- You can find your alder here: find your alderperson.

2. Show up to register on Tuesday. Stay if you can!
- We just need lots of bodies! The meeting starts at 6:30 and it is in room 201 of the City-County Building (old jail). You would register on the Operating Budget, in support of amendment #3 - WYOU

3. Watching Wednesday!
On Wednesday they will likely not take any testimony, but just vote on the amendments that we care about. Since we are dead last . . . we'll be there to the end. I would be helpful to have bodies in the room to help make sure that they don't forget our testimony from the previous night.

If you can only do one, send an email. Do it now!! Allalders@cityofmadison.com

Below is a chart showing how the current 2009 PEG monies are divided between the government channel and WYOU. Note that we already get a smaller percentage. Now Mayor Dave wants to cut our funding in 2010 by half of this and give it to the government channel--not a fair deal. WYOU is the station for the people. Don't let it die.