Most of the Chicago Police Department’s (CPD, or the ‘Department’) spending (96.5%) is budgeted through the City’s Corporate Fund, or general operating fund. This analysis provides a snapshot of CPD spending within the Corporate Fund since 2019.CPD expenditures within the Corporate Fund are proposed to be $1.96 billion in FY2026. The Police Department’s budgeted spending has increased by 26.5% between the 2019 adopted budget and the 2026 proposed budget, at an average annualized growth rate of…
In 2019, the City of Chicago (Chicago or the ‘City’) had a budget of $8.9 billion, excluding grants from the State of Illinois (Illinois or the ‘State’) and the Federal government. By 2025, expenditures had grown to $12.4 billion—a 40% increase. Using 2019 as a baseline, this report explains how much the Chicago budget has grown compared to pre-pandemic levels of spending and what areas of the budget are driving that growth.
Each fall, the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget (GOMB) issues its Illinois Economic and Fiscal Policy report, which serves as the State of Illinois’ (Illinois or the ‘State’) primary long-term fiscal planning document and an early indicator of whether Illinois is structurally balanced heading into the next budget year. The 2025 edition of the report, released on October 9, 2025, about a month earlier than required by statute, signals an increasingly strained fiscal environment due to…
Over 41 million individuals rely on the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“SNAP”) to assist in buying food each month—including nearly 1.9 million individuals in Illinois. The current federal government shutdown threatens the funding of these benefits in the near term, and soon-to-be-implemented programmatic changes in federal policies present additional fiscal challenges to states across the country, not to mention budget pressures on SNAP participants. These…
The introduction of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed FY2026 budget on October 16 provides Chicagoans with insight into how this administration proposes to address a $1.2 billion budget deficit and what they aim to prioritize in the coming year. Excluding grant funds, the proposed budget is 2.7% higher than the previous year, despite a significant deficit necessitating unprecedented revenue measures. The budget proposes closing the deficit by substantially increasing the cloud computing…
Chicago enters the FY2026 budget season at a pivotal moment. If it feels like we have been here before, it is because we have for as long as can be remembered. Ever-mounting taxes and fees, persistent structural budget gaps, high long-term debt, underfunded pensions, and debates over government spending are long-held staples of local political discourse. Despite occasional wins, the City’s fiscal situation remains largely unchanged, and new financial burdens further threaten an already fragile…
Chicago is the only major city in the United States that operates without a constitution, which, for cities, is referred to as a charter. This absence is not just an anomaly; it fundamentally impacts every aspect of our City’s processes. Without a charter, Chicago’s governance rests on a patchwork of ordinances and informal traditions that can change with each administration. This has created a system with no clear separation of powers, limited resources for the City Council to serve as a co-…
The Local Pension Dashboard is intended for use as a resource and educational tool to increase the accessibility of local pension fund data. The dashboard reports metrics for the ten major local pension funds within the City of Chicago and Cook County, Illinois, with data from 1996 to 2024 (2024 CTA data is not included as that data has not been released as of publication). Using this tool, dashboard users can create custom visualizations and comparisons of up to ten funds.
Equity-based budgeting is a framework for distributing government resources in a way that actively addresses systemic disparities and promotes fairness across communities. This approach prioritizes spending that meets the greatest needs, repairs historical harms, and expands opportunities—particularly for populations that have been historically underserved or marginalized. While much of this work occurs within the scope of governments’ ongoing operating budgets, such expenditures can still…
On August 28th, 2025, Chicago Public Schools (CPS, or the “District”) passed a balanced budget for its 2026 fiscal year, covering the 2025-2026 school year. The budget successfully closed a $734 million deficit. The District’s choice to avoid short-term borrowing as a deficit-closing method likely prevented a credit downgrade.
