Rahm Gives Chipper 2017 Budget Address After Narrowly Avoiding A Teachers' Strike
By aaroncynic in News on Oct 11, 2016 6:09PM
On the heels of a narrowly avoided teacher’s strike, Mayor Rahm Emanuel delivered his annual budget address to City Council, giving himself a pat on the back for weathering some of Chicago’s fiscal storms and proposing an optimistic plan for 2017.
“Today I am presenting a budget unlike any other we have seen in recent memory,” said an almost chipper sounding Emanuel in his address to the City Council. “It is a budget free of an immediate pension crisis, free of the black cloud of insolvency threatening the retirements of city employees and our financial future.”
While free of any major tax increases that Chicagoans have seen in previous years, Emanuel’s proposed budget includes about $25 million in new fines and fees, among them a tax on plastic bags at stores. Additionally, he plans to raise an estimated $33.7 million by cutting energy costs, $82.3 million in sales tax growth and city permit and vehicle sticker fees, and $86.4 million from a split in a TIF surplus with Chicago Public Schools.
The bulk of the budget however, will be paid for by revenues from previous planned tax hikes that are still being phased in.
“Today, we are balancing our budget not with gimmicks, but with honesty and a sense of shared responsibility,” said Emanuel.
He also threw some shade at former Mayor Richard M. Daley, but without mentioning him by name.
"For too long Chicago was not honest with taxpayers and employees about the true cost of their pensions, and we allowed that dishonesty to turn into a real financial burden,” said Emanuel.
While the mayor touted his fiscal reforms over the past few years, which he said has brought the structural deficit down by 80 percent to its lowest level in a decade, he put plenty of new items on the table that will need to be paid for. Among them include hiring hundreds of new police officers, including 500 new neighborhood cops and 200 new detectives, a modernized and mobile 311 program, moving 250 jobs from Goose Island to Englewood, and the creation of a “Community Catalyst Fund,” which will “make targeted investments with financial managers that invest in businesses in our most resource-starved neighborhoods.”
Emanuel says he tapped Treasurer Kurt Summers—who will chair the fund—to raise private capital for the fund in the hopes of doubling or tripling the City’s initial $100 million investment.
Emanuel’s speech did not go without criticism, however.
“He did not explain how much of this will be paid for, and while there was some eluding to it, there was never a discussion about why he thought it was a good idea,” Alderman Scott Waguespack said. “For instance, the Goose Island sell off—if they allowed the developer to come in and build condos, that would destroy the integrity of the planned manufacturing district and the thousands of jobs that these areas provide. That’s just one problem.”
While championing his hiring of new cops, the mayor also completely ignored the multitude of scandals the Chicago Police Department has faced during his tenure due to the deaths of many people of color at the hands of police. Instead, Emanuel told Chicagoans to thank the police for their work.
“I want everyone in the city to hear this—no resource we provide our officers is stronger than the resource you provide them in support,” Emanuel said.
Some community groups were also less than impressed with Emanuel's plan, saying that while the TIF surplus is a start, much more is needed and the wealthiest in the city still aren't paying their fair share of taxes.
“Mayor Emanuel continues his streak of asking working families to pay more while the most wealthy continue to not pay their fair share. This is not sustainable. Plastic bags are not going to generate the resources needed to address the economic and racial inequality driving so much of the violence in our communities,” Amisha Patel, Executive Director of Grassroots Collaborative, said in a statement.
“The declared TIF surplus is a victory for Chicago’s families but we have to pass the Chicago Public Education Revitalization (CPER) Ordinance to institutionalize the surplus process," said Patrick Brosnan, Executive Director of Brighton Park Neighborhood Council. "While we acknowledge that some of the surplus is being redirected to schools, it's only the start of our fight to win education equity in Chicago.”