MADISON, Wis. -- The Madison Common Council approved funding which could eventually be used for the Edgewater Hotel redevelopment in the city's capital budget on Wednesday night.

SLIDESHOW: See Images Of Edgewater Hotel Plan

The decision means the council approved the 2010 operating and capital budget. With it, city leaders also approved $16 million in tax increment financing (TIF) fundingfor the redevelopment of the hotel. The funding will only be available when and if the TIF is eventually approved.

The debate on the issue took about four and a half hours, and both sides presented wide-ranging arguments.

"Why are we doing this? That would be a very hard thing, because for me, in the future, a developer comes to do work with us, (and) will demand a TIF before anything," said Thuy Pham-Remmele.

Those who oppose the Edgewater project have said the proposed tower is just too tall, and that it's too big a project for the historic neighborhood.

But others have argued that it will revitalize the area, offer more public access to Lake Mendota and create jobs.

"Probably the only clearly good thing about this project is the number of jobs that it could create. And that is important to all of us. It's certainly very important to me," said Alder Satya Rhodes-Conway.

The council's decision on funding for the Edgewater project is just the beginning of the process. The project still needs to go through many committees, including final approval from the Common Council. The decision Wednesday night is strictly budgeting, and would make the money available once the project is fully approved.

Late Tuesday night, the Common Council approved another major downtown project -- a central library. The $37 million downtown library project will also be a part of the city's capital budget for next year.

According to city officials, the library plan will employ 200 construction workers. Building the new library could begin as soon as next year and open in 2012, they said.