Editor’s Note

Welcome to Newswire — your weekly guide to Chicago government, civic action and what action we can take to make our city great, featuring public meeting coverage by City Bureau’s Documenters.

Quote of the Week

“A transparent and effective budgeting process for the third-largest city in the nation is not one that's going to happen in 60 days.”

— Deborah Witzburg, Chicago’s inspector general, agreeing with Ald. Andre Vasquez’s comment on receiving the budget proposal after Halloween. Vasquez has expressed interest in a year-round working group and access to more data ahead of time.

[City Council Committee on Budget and Government Operations, Nov. 9, 2024]

Budget season has started! And stopped … and started again! At Chicago Documenters, we’re doing our best to stay on top of the marathon hearings and multiple schedule changes (check out our handy cheat sheet here). We’ve included some highlights in this issue of Newswire, but you can find much, much more on our Twitter @CHIdocumenters and documenters.org.

The budget fix

Annette Guzman, Chicago’s budget director, kicked off departmental hearings defending the budget proposal as a structural fix that delivers on pension obligations without cutting essential staffing and infrastructure. Her department, the Office of Budget and Management, is modeling belt-tightening by requesting $20.4 million, down from $96.4 million appropriated this year. Much of that, however, is due to the winding down of the “migrant mission” and consolidating it with the city’s unified shelter entry system.

Revenue stream-ing

Last Thursday, alders voted 50-0 against a property tax levy that would increase property owners’ taxes by about 4%, according to the city’s 2025 budget documents. Mayor Brandon Johnson and advisers had presented it as the only viable option for generating additional revenue to close the $982 million budget gap.

City Council has the power to raise taxes up to 5% each year to keep up with cost-of-living increases, but alders have not done so since 2021. Mayor Lori Lightfoot, facing reelection, abandoned a proposed tax hike that would have brought in $42.7 million in 2023. When Johnson succeeded her, he stuck to his campaign promise and did not raise taxes in 2024. 

The proposed 2025 increase was designed to make up the revenue that would have been collected in those years, a projected $300 million, Guzman said.

The city is now exploring increasing taxes on services such as video streaming and other internet-based apps and subscriptions. Property owners could still see a 2% increase on their tax bills, Johnson said at a press conference on Tuesday, announcing plans for a $150 million tax hike.

Beefing up police accountability

Chicago’s experiment in grassroots police accountability is “coming fully to life” three years after City Council voted to establish the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, executive director Adam Gross told alders. But staff supporting the 22 police district councils were “working to the bone,” Gross said. By law, CCPSA’s annual budget must be at least 0.22% of the Chicago Police Department’s budget. It is requesting just over $4 million for 2025.

  • City Council Committee on the Budget and Government Operations by Sheila Lewis

Budget schedule bumps

Amid multiple last-minute schedule changes, a funeral service for former City Council member Bill Beavers and aldermanic ire, departmental budget hearings were largely on pause last week. The hearings resumed this week on a modified schedule and will continue the week of Dec. 2

At City Bureau

Our biweekly look at what’s happening within our own programs, events and other work at City Bureau. This week, you’re invited to Public Newsroom 157.

Our next Public Newsroom is 6 p.m. Thursday at the City Bureau office, 3619 S. State St.

Our fall Civic Reporting Fellows, who are focusing on elections and the civic process, will lead a discussion with community advocates about how to hold elected officials accountable when it comes to Chicago’s newly elected school board, the South Shore Community Benefits Agreement and how to care for housing-insecure neighbors.

The goal will be to build a resource guide people can use to check their local leaders on these issues and policies.

It’s free — and there will be food and refreshments. You can RSVP here. We’d love to see you.

A version of this story was first published in the November 20, 2024 issue of the Newswire, an email newsletter that is your weekly guide to Chicago government, civic action and what we can do to make our city great. You can sign up for the weekly newsletter here.

Have thoughts on what you'd like to see in this feature? Email Editorial Director Ariel Cheung at ariel@citybureau.org.