City Council Approves Daley Budget Punt

By Chuck Sudo in News on Nov 18, 2010 3:00PM

City Council approved Mayor Daley's final budget — heavily reliant on one-time revenue streams and a huge dip into the parking meter reserves — by a 43-7 measure yesterday despite warnings from government watchdogs that the next mayor will have to deal with the consequences.

From reading the press release from the Mayor's office, one could have the assumption that Daley reconsidered his decision not to run for a second term. Daley's budget plan doesn't raise taxes, fees or fines. "I do not believe it is right to raise taxes with the economy as bad as it is," he said. The press release also highlights freezes on non-safety hiring, job cuts, department consolidations and the use of furlough days to help balance the budget. Daley also called his decision to raid the parking meter funds, which leave only $78 million from the one-time $1.18 billion payment, "controversial" while emphasizing he did not touch the reserves from the Chicago Skyway privatization.

But Daley's raiding of one-time reserves like the parking meter payment and TIF funds could leave the next mayor and a reconstituted City Council scrambling to fend off a major budget meltdown. According to Civic Federation President Laurence Msall, "(t)he new mayor is going to be forced to make significant cuts in all areas of city services, including public safety, and is going to be forced to raise taxes just to fund the city's pension liability." Daley heard none of that, instead crowing about how his "vision" staved off the meltdown and secured the city's economic future. Daley told reporters, "I believe we have protected the city in the future. … We have not kicked the can. We have not placed whoever the [next] mayor is in a difficult position."

If Msall's dire prediction is realized, Daley and ten aldermen won't be around to pick up the mess. If hindsight was 20/20, that press release read as though Daley was trying to secure his legacy at the expense of the city's economic well-being.