Chicago’s city council is set to vote on a package of ordinances setting the municipal budget for 2025. A late start, the mayor’s failure to provide detailed information requested by alderpeople, and a unanimous city council rejection of the mayor’s initial proposed tax levy all highlight the need for change in Chicago’s budget process.
Chicago has one of the shortest and latest-starting municipal budget cycles in the country. Delay in introduction by the mayor’s office saw the process start even closer to the Dec. 31st deadline than normal—and put the city at risk of a first-ever government shutdown.
The Civic Federation, the Better Government Association and the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability recommend that the Mayor of Chicago deliver the budget proposal earlier in the year than the typical October start date, and that city council have prior access to the departmental budget requests that inform it. “What we have right now is a situation where the departments tell the mayor what they need to operate in the coming year, and the city council is left in the dark until the mayor’s budget address,” said David Greising, president of the BGA. “The proposed budget should be available to the council with sufficient time and resources so that the council can score the budget and be in a position to vote with the full information and understanding.”
A package of reforms introduced by Alds. Andre Vasquez (40), Nicole Lee (11) and Matt Martin (47) initially made substantial progress toward a more co-equal and transparent progress, but amendments made during budget negotiations eliminated the most substantive changes.
A requirement that departments submit their annual budget requests to the mayor’s administration and to city council simultaneously was struck, as was language mandating that departmental budgets include the pension and benefit costs of department personnel. Currently those costs are lumped together in the citywide “finance general” category, disguising the true cost-for-service of the city’s operating departments.
A budget floor ensuring that the Council Office of Financial Analysis be funded to at least 20% the level of the mayor’s Office of Budget and Management also failed to make it into the final language.
The amended ordinance provides that if an alderman requests that an outside entity view and analyze budget data that they would first have to enter into a data sharing agreement approved by the corporation counsel. Not only will this practice not be equitable, but it would give the mayor’s office latitude to selectively release information, potentially politicizing access to this vital data. This is not the way to create transparency or accountability.
“The budget transparency ordinance as it was initially drafted was a serious step forward in both transparency and in building the Council’s capacity to meaningfully analyze city financial data, and make fully informed votes on the budget,” Joe Ferguson, President of the Civic Federation stated. “Unfortunately, what ultimately passed out of committee was a watered-down version that amounts to little more than some extra quarterly reports. It’s not the progress Chicagoans deserve, and it’s not going to give city council the tools it needs to be a co-equal participant in the budget process.”
“We urge the city council to revert back to the original drafted ordinance where real transparency and accountability can be at the forefront of the budget process,” said Ralph Martire, Executive Director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability
The Civic Federation is an independent, non-partisan government research organization that provides robust and objective fiscal analysis, recommendations, and oversight for the benefit of civic and business leaders, the media, and the general public in Chicago and the State of Illinois. Founded in 1894 to address deep concerns about the city’s economic and political climate at the turn of the century, the Federation has been a civic leader in Chicago and Illinois for 130 years.
The Better Government Association is a 101-year-old civic watchdog that seeks better government through investigative journalism, policy reforms and civic engagement efforts that lead to more open, equitable and accountable government. The policy team and investigative unit operate independently of one another, while both seek to advance the cause of better government in Chicago and across Illinois.
The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability was formed in 2000. It is a nonpartisan, nonprofit research, and advocacy think tank that works across ideological lines to promote social and economic justice for everyone, from traditionally disadvantaged populations to the middle-class. Given how rancorous the current political environment is in our nation, the charge to design policy reform initiatives that were not only rigorous and evidence-based but would also bridge rather than reinforce ideological divides was both prescient—and crucial.
Read the original press statement here.