Thank you to all of you who have taken the time to fill out our budget survey and otherwise reach out over the past few weeks about your thoughts, questions, and concerns about this year’s budget!
In this year’s budget survey results, the top five priorities our neighbors identified for this year’s budget were: housing, community services, with many people mentioning libraries in particular, crisis intervention, infrastructure, and public safety.
Neighbors also expressed strong support for the SMART tax, taxing online sports betting and Delta 8/THC in beverages, an expansion of the houseshare surcharge, and the yacht tax. Neighbors also expressed concern over the increase in CPD overtime. For all of the other proposals, the feedback was more mixed. You can check out the full results of the survey here!
While some of us may have differences in priorities, one thing that most folks (myself included!) agree on is that Chicago is in a financial crisis, and Chicagoans don’t want the burden of paying for it to fall unfairly on their shoulders––especially without wealthy corporations paying their fair share.
On that note: there has been some confusion out there about my take on the Head Tax. While I did vote against the Mayor’s proposed revenue ordinance, my opposition was not based on the Head Tax. I fully agree that our wealthiest businesses should be willing to pay their fare share for the services that they benefit from, and I would support a Head Tax that accomplishes those goals. In fact, one of my main concerns about the alternate proposal by City Council members––and the reason I chose not to sign onto it––was their refusal to consider any level of Head Tax. That said, I do think it’s important City Council members understand details like how they arrived at both the employee threshold and the headcount amount, whether remote workers count, and whether profit margins are a consideration, to ensure we do not inadvertently contribute to people losing their jobs. My hope is that the administration will provide these details. In the meantime, I am not supporting any budget that refuses to consider it outright, because I think all of these proposals have to remain on the table to fix the problem of this budget.
What I am in firm opposition to is a budget that relies on short-term solutions and borrowing––including borrowing to cover CPD misconduct settlements––that will dig us even deeper into the financial crisis. I voted no on the initial revenue ordinance because of how much it relied on short-term, non-structural funding. We have been assured by creditors that this will lead to a downgrade, which will further exacerbate the burden of debt Chicagoans are already carrying as a result of the decisions of former administrations.
Here are some specific concerns I have about the budget as it stands:
- Borrowing $166 million to pay for the Chicago Fire Department’s backpay. CFD deserves the wages they earned––but taxpayers shouldn’t have to foot the interest for the City dragging its feet through years of negotiations.
- No Full Pension Payment. We’ve had enough of delays, when it comes to paying our debts. We must continue to fund full advanced pension payments, to avoid downgrades that will cost current and future taxpayers even more in interest.
- Borrowing $283M Misconduct Settlement Payments. Let me clear: victims of torture and civil rights violations deserve accountability, and they deserve compensation for what they lost. But we shouldn’t be borrowing to cover those costs. If CPD is costing the City more than was budgeted for their own misconduct, then that money should come out of their own budget, not the pockets of working Chicagoans.
- Cutting funds to the Chicago Public Library while increasing the Chicago Police Department. I’m also opposed to a budget that makes cuts to crucial city services like the library, while offering more money to a department that has cost the city hundreds of millions of dollars in misconduct and unbudgeted overtime. This budget cuts 200 SEIU Local 1 library positions and 89 AFSCME library positions, while increasing CPD’s budget by 7.6% and doubling their overtime budget.
This week marks another week of negotiations, so in addition to amending the budget to include the full advanced pension payment, full funding for the Chicago Public Library, and no borrowing to cover CFD back payments and CPD misconduct settlements, I will also be prioritizing the following issues in my negotiations:
- More robust budget transparency and data requirements, so that City Council is fully empowered with the data we need to propose alternate solutions to future budgets;
- Shifting parking enforcement from CPD by instituting a Citywide Parking Alternative Response Team. This will both save money, by shifting this responsibility away from sworn officers to civilians, but also refocus CPD on their core duties.
- Expanding Smart Streets Pilot and Speed Cameras Citywide. While we’ve made a lot of strides, traffic safety is still a huge public safety issue in Chicago. Ensuring that people are held accountable when they endanger pedestrians and cyclists by violating our speed limit or parking in bike lanes will help ensure that we keep Chicagoans safe. That said, I also support a graduated fines and fees model, where costs are determined by the income of the person who has committed an infraction. Accountability is important, but it has to be equitable––flat fees impact different people differently based on their income, so I will be advocating for a system that ensures equity in accountability
- Raising the garbage fee to $18, with exemptions for senior and low-income residents. Chicago has one of the lowest garbage fees nationwide––so much so that the fees don’t even cover half the actual costs of picking up garbage. This is a fee for a service, so we have to ensure that fee covers the actual service, while also ensuring that it is equitable by offering exemptions for those who can’t afford it.
- Misconduct Settlement Reporting and Accountability. I introduced a resolution calling for a hearing on police misconduct settlements several months ago, and our team is currently working on legislation that would require thresholds and higher reporting standards for misconduct settlements, as well as regular hearings on patterns of misconduct and whether CPD is taking the necessary steps to remedy those patterns.
- Delivery package fees, with exceptions for necessities like groceries, prescriptions and medicine, and prepared food orders, to ensure that those who can’t easily leave their house are not penalized for meeting their basic needs;
- An increase in the Personal Property Lease Transaction (PPLT): in the vein of taxing companies who can afford it, I believe we should increase the PPLT to 18%, to ensure that companies mining our data pay their fare share;
- An independent forensic audit of the Chicago Police Department, Chicago’s largest budget item by far.
I want to spend a little bit of extra time on that last item, because I think it’s incredibly important.
The Chicago Police Department represents over 50% of the City’s Corporate Fund spending. It is also the department that represents the city’s largest issue when it comes to overspending our budget. CPD has overspent its budgeted overtime in 5 of the past 6 years, costing Chicago taxpayers an additional $500 million in unbudgeted funds. Misconduct settlements have cost Chicago taxpayers $280 million so far in misconduct settlements this year––well over the $82 million that was budgeted. What’s more, the majority of those costs will be paid by borrowing, the interest from which will cost taxpayers an additional $52 million. In the meantime, CPD has complied with less than 25% than the Consent Decree, which was court ordered to prevent the type of violations of constitutional rights that have resulted in the skyrocketing misconduct payments. And the City is still paying the pensions of the officers like Reynaldo Guevara, who is currently collecting $91K pension per year, while his misconduct has already cost the City $112 million (and really, misconduct is not strong enough of a word to cover torturing false confessions out of people).
It is disgraceful that Chicago taxpayers are having to foot the bill for Chicago police officers torturing Chicago residents. But now they are being expected to foot the interest, as well.
In any other situation, constantly overspending budgets and costing your organization hundreds of millions of dollars because of misconduct would come with consequences. Instead, under this administration, it has come with a historic raise, and now, under this budget, the doubling of their overtime budget.
That’s why this week, I will be proposing legislation to force an independent, forensic audit of CPD. My hope is that this will pave the way to do the same with other departments––but we have to start with our largest.
I hope this explains where I stand on the budget, but as always, I welcome your feedback! I have been reading all of your thoughts, and look forward to carrying your feedback with me into this week’s continued negotiations.