The budget delays a new Midtown District police station until 2018, a Fire Department employee development and EMS station on the Southeast Side for two years, and the rebuilding of Monroe Street, making do with patch repairs in 2017 and putting off full reconstruction until 2020. Soglin and the City Council have battled over the timing of those projects for the last two budgets.

They are important but must be balanced against all city priorities, including the effect of debt payments on the overall city budget, the mayor said. “On a cost-benefit basis, they can wait,” he said.

Council President Mike Verveer, 4th District, said he was “mildly disappointed, but not at all surprised” that Soglin delayed those projects in his preliminary budget.

“The mayor had a very tough job making decisions on what to propose for funding. As he told me throughout the summer, he was going to make people unhappy and indeed he has,” Verveer said. “The mayor is sticking to his guns on a variety of these projects and the council will likely disagree with some of those priorities when it is all said and done.”

Ald. Mark Clear, whose West Side 19th District would encompass much of the new Midtown Police District, was less pleased to see those disputes resurface.