Thread: Chicagos black hole budget shortfall

Daley's gaping budget hole revealed
(http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/4896 ... et.article)

July 30, 2007

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter/fspielman@suntimes.com
Mayor Daley has a whopping $217.7 million hole in his 2008 budget that can only be filled through tax increases, employee layoffs, non-personnel spending cuts or a painful combination of the three, aldermen were told today.

The shortfall is the second-largest in 10 years in the city’s corporate fund alone and is coupled with smaller but still sizeable gaps in the city’s water and sewer funds.

It comes just five months after Daley breezed to re-election on a budget that froze the city’s property tax levy for a third straight year, held the line on all other taxes and fees, and used $94 million of the $1.83 billion Chicago Skyway privatization windfall to finance an array of neighborhood and social programs.

Union leaders accused the city of exaggerating the financial crunch tied to the housing slump to stifle their contract demands. Aldermen claimed just the opposite. They argued that former city Budget Director-turned-Chief Financial Officer Paul Volpe kept the lid on the crisis until after the election.

"During the election year, everything is fine. And the following year, when they sit down to negotiate contracts, there’s always a black hole. It remains to be seen whether it’s a real black hole," said Fraternal Order of Police President Mark Donahue, whose union is demanding a 24 percent pay hike over four years and a $3,000-a-year residency stipend.

Ald. Bernard Stone (50th) countered, "Whoever handles the budget and is now apparently our chief financial adviser should have foreseen this. You’re taking samples along the way. This doesn’t happen overnight."

Volpe was in Springfield lobbying for an increase in the telephone surcharge that helped fund Chicago’s 911 emergency center in hopes of shaving the deficit by $50 million. He could not be reached for comment.

Deputy Budget Director Lisa Schrader said, "We announced budget cuts twice this year given increased expenditures and some reduced revenues — in mid-May and as recently as last week."

Last week, Daley set the stage for a post-election tax increase by ordering his second round of mid-year spending cuts in two months. The 2 percent across-the-board cut in non-personnel spending came on the same day that year-end audits showed Chicago closed the books on 2006 with just $26.8 million in the bank. That’s less than half the $57.6 million unreserved cash balance it had the year before.

Today, the other shoe dropped with word of the $217.7 million shortfall in the city’s preliminary 2008 budget.

During a series of closed-door aldermanic briefings, top mayoral aides did not say how they intend to close the gap. But, aldermen fearing the worst did not hesitate to make their feelings known.

"I’m certainly not gonna vote for an increase in the real estate tax. I can tell you that. And that was the opinion of everybody in the room. In September, new property tax bills come out with a major increase as a result of the reassessment. If you pile on an increased tax burden, that would be absolutely unpardonable," Stone said.

Stone also ridiculed a Springfield plan to raise the real estate transfer tax to bail out the CTA at a time when the housing slump has caused the tax to fall $40 million short of expectations.

"We’re gonna come in $40 million below what our projection is and they want us to increase it? They’re out of their minds. It figures that someone from the suburbs would make that suggestion. It shows a total lack of comprehension about what’s happening in Chicago," he said.

Chicago Water Management Commissioner John Spatz has already hinted at the need for a water rate increase to finance the costly switch to automatic meter readers.

The size of the water and sewer fund shortfalls was not known. But, the city audits disclosed that a decline in water usage tied to a mild summer of 2006 had prompted operating revenues in the city’s water and sewer funds to drop by nearly $21 million.

Sanctuary city.........

This is what is going to happen to all the ILLEGAL ALIEN SANCTUARIES!!!! Taxpayers are going to get wise sooner or later!

Mayor Daley has a whopping $217.7 million hole in his 2008 budget that can only be filled through tax increases, employee layoffs, non-personnel spending cuts or a painful combination of the three

Let's see...Chicago is a sanctuary city with hundreds of thousands illegal aliens...and not a word of this in the scrambling for reasons of the $218 million budget shortfall. I suppose, if they did mention the "undocumented Americans" this columnist would have said "that without the positive contributions of the undocumented, the budget shortfall would have been immeasurably worse." With $3 in services consumed by an illegal alien for every $1 of contribution to the economy, Chicago needs to do the math. OH, that's right...they have no idea how many "undocumented Americans" are massed in the Windy City with their welcoming don't ask, don't tell policy.

Currently, there is unresolved action by Judicial Watch against the Chicago police Department sanctuary city policy.

For Immediate Release
Jan 4, 2007 Contact: Press Office
202-646-5188

Judicial Watch Files Open Records Lawsuit Against Chicago Police Department Over Illegal Alien Sanctuary Policy

Request Seeks Documents Pertaining to Policies Governing the Interaction between Police Officers and Illegal Aliens

(Washington, DC) -- Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has filed an open records lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department related to the department’s policies concerning illegal immigration. Judicial Watch’s lawsuit, (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Chicago Police Department, #06CH28084), filed on December 22, 2006 in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, asks the court to compel the Chicago Police Department to comply with Judicial Watch’s October 13, 2006 Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking documents pertaining to policies and procedures governing the interaction between Chicago police officers and known or suspected illegal aliens.

Judicial Watch began its investigation after learning of a resolution under consideration by the Cook County, Illinois Board of Commissioners that would declare Cook County a “Sanctuary Countyâ€