Last week I voted for the Mayor's budget and want to share the reasons behind that vote with you. The overall answer is we are making progress on financial matters and stabilizing city operations while, at the same time, pushing forward on major reform and re-building our police force.

 

Four financial hurdles dominate the Chicago city budget: 

-        Pension obligations

-        Operating issues and inefficiencies

-        Poor financial practices leading to an overall high level of debt

-        Unsustainable union contracts

 

The courts stymied efforts to reform the city's pension obligations,  forcing property tax increases along with water and sewer increases to meet these obligations.  Recently, however, the  Illinois Supreme Court  issued an encouraging ruling that will save taxpayers $130 million a year and help reduce our pension debt.

Operating issues have plagued City departments for decades. The most costly have been  poor police practices that have resulted in over $600 million in judgments - that alone would have prevented the recent property tax increase. 

 

The answer to lowering costs is to eliminate the faulty practices in the Chicago Police Department that led to these liabilities.  I have written about reforming CPD in a previous newsletter. 

 

For our community, this budget will bring more officers to the North Side and offset the loss of personnel caused by police retirements.  We expect to have our police districts more robustly staffed throughout 2018.

 

Another operational cost saving, reducing  absenteeism and overtime, is beginning to bear fruit.  I co-chaired the Absenteeism Task Force and can report in the last 12 months, absenteeism has dropped dramatically. (See this chart).  Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), overtime and absenteeism discipline reforms recommended by the Task Force are being implemented and will lead to greater future savings. This means more money directed into better city services for everyone.

Overall debt has climbed as the city has paid the penalties associated with bad fiscal practices including swaps, adjustable rate borrowings and "scoop and toss."  These practices are now at an end.  

The city also pledged to decrease borrowing for non-long term items. From 2011-2015, the city borrowed $467 million to pay judgments and settlements, as it had for many years.  In 2016 we borrowed nothing, and there are no plans to borrow for 2017.  The city also provided me with concrete information proving tens of millions of items scheduled to be paid with borrowed funds were instead, paid with operating funds - which is more proper. 

The remaining threat to financial stability are union contracts, currently being renegotiated.  As I've discussed in an earlier newsletter, our police contract must be redrawn to facilitate reform and lower our costs. Unions, whose pensions are now generously funded, must now partner with the city to change wasteful work rules and stabilize wages and benefits to secure full city services for the future. 

I supported some changes in fees in this budget.  For example, our ward's local economic driver is live entertainment and restaurants.  That is why it was important to restructure the amusement tax to exempt all venues under 1500 seats.  This will help our local theatres, such as the Royal George, Lincoln Hall, and Park West, as well as smaller music houses like Alive One, Blues and Kingston Mines.  These establishments bring important dollars and vibrancy into our community and help support neighboring businesses and the restaurants that we enjoy.

Of course, there is room for criticism of this budget. After careful review, my vote was to endorse the progress we have made with a pledge to continue demanding efficient use of your tax dollars.

Holiday Meet and Treat