Chicago’s $17.1 billion 2025 budget narrowly passed the City Council on Monday, Dec. 16, following contentious debates over tax increases and debt restructuring. Southwest Side aldermen Silvana Tabares (23rd), Raymond Lopez (15th), and Marty Quinn (13th) criticized the budget for what they termed a “back-door” tax burden on residents.
Despite no increase in property taxes, middle management and mayoral staff cuts, increased cloud computing, streaming and cable TV service taxes, a delayed payment and decreased payment size of a $40 million line of credit and more, the 2025 budget amounts to kicking Chicago’s fiscal can down the road, the aldermen said.
$40 million dollar debt
The $40 million debt stems from a decades-old general obligation loan tied to the city’s failed Olympic bid. While refinanced in 2017, Mayor Johnson’s plan to amortize it by 2026 could cost taxpayers up to $15 million in additional interest, Bloomberg News reported.
On Nov. 19, the Standard & Poors credit rating agency put the city on ‘Credit Watch with negative implications’ saying it would downgrade the city’s credit rating if it closed its financial gap with “one-time fixes rather than structural changes,” also according to Bloomberg.
“As we all know, the Olympics never came here, but the borrowing attached to the purchase of the property remains, meaning the budget is not balanced,” Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th) said. “It’s interesting the mayor had to go 20 years back to find an open line of credit somewhere to be able to balance his budget.”
Despite S&P’s warning, the budget features other one-time fixes like taxes on single-use bags, ride-sharing and new speed cameras rather than structural changes like cutting wasteful projects, salaries and expanding personnel and pension costs, according to Illinois Policy.
“He found a way around by looking at an old, nearly expired line of credit and activating it in the 11th hour to keep his budget afloat,” Lopez said.
Government efficiency
“What we passed on Monday is not a responsible budget,” Ald. Silvana Tabares (23rd) said. “The city council voted for a back-door property tax increase that is a ticking time bomb. The group of 15 alders (“The 15”), myself included, have been advocating for a budget that’s reasonable, responsible and that spends resident taxpayer dollars carefully.”
While the mayor claimed a win for Chicago residents, in reality they lost, she added.
The alderman believes the 2025 budget will, in the long-term, bankrupt the city and take decades to recoup monies for funding future city budgets, laying the payback burden on taxpayers, Tabares said.
Some government efficiencies proposed by The 15 were not considered by the administration.
Tabares criticized the new budget’s salary of almost $500,000 for the Vice Mayor, a traditionally honorific role, up from $0 under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot. “While no one wants layoffs, residents deserve essential services, not inflated administrative costs,” she said.
Residents also do not want tax dollars spent on non-essential projects that do not produce results, according to a recent poll reported on by the Greater Southwest News Herald, Tabares noted.
Lack of transparency, communication and collaboration
Tabares decried the administration’s lack of transparency during budget negotiations, citing canceled hearings that reduced time to ask more questions and delayed data sharing taking her away from 23rd ward duties.
“I have great ward staff that did what they could do in the ward but I wasn’t present,” she said. “Residents want to see the alderman.”
During negotiations, in an effort to identify efficiencies that could be cut from the budget, the 15 sought to trim the budget by making multiple requests that the city budget office provide the current number of employees in each city department, Aldermen Tabares said.
“We sent out time-stamped memos; they refused to give us those numbers,” she said. “Their job is to give us information; we alders were left in the dark.”
Shotspotter reconnection and a new 8th Police District residents approved in a referendum also went ignored by the administration despite being identified in a Dec. 15 letter laying out a counter-proposal sent by The 15, Tabares added.
New southwest side police district.
“I made a pledge to the residents of the 13th Ward back in September that if the mayor does not include money for our new police district, I’m going to be a ‘no’ vote,” Ald. Marty Quinn (13th) said.
Quinn asked about next steps for the new police district when Chicago Police Superintendent Snelling came before the council; Snelling agreed, on the record, to do a walk-through of the Illinois National Guard Armory, the proposed site, he added.
“We’re going to look to get that scheduled early in the new year,” Quinn said.
Legislation passed in the Illinois General Assembly by state Rep. Angela Guerrero-Cuellar and state Senator Mike Porfirio would transfer the armory at 5400 W. 63rd St. for $1 to the City of Chicago for the single purpose of a new police district. If the city chooses not create the new police district on the site, the state takes the property back, according to Quinn.
“That building today could be upwards of $6 million,” Quinn said. “The governor did sign that bill; it is law so that is an immediate gift to the city for this idea. I, along with the state representative and senator, are saying we need this or we want to be part of the solution.”
The future
Tabares, Quinn and Lopez are proud to have taken the lead and guided alders toward a no property tax budget and attempting to reform and right-size City of Chicago spending, but all agree there is still work to be done.
With debates over public safety and financial sustainability ongoing, Southwest Side leaders vowed to keep residents’ concerns at the forefront.
“What we’ve seen from this exercise is that city council aldermen are still the ones in charge and when we work together for the greater good, not just our own self-interests, we can do remarkable things,” said Lopez.
“I am proud to have been part of the group and we’re going to continue to push for common sense at city hall,” said Tabares. “There are ongoing conversations on topics like ShotSpotter that we’re going to put to paper so we’ll see.”
“It was a long process and I think the end result of the process is that the City Council is a little bit more co-equal but we have a lot of work to do,” said Quinn. “We’re going to continue to fight and push the envelope because residents of the 13th Ward on the Southwest Side deserve a new police district. They deserve, when they call 911, that the police are going to be there.”
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