The Chicago Tribune asks today: Why do Chicago and Mayor Richard Daley face $420 million budget shortfall?

This is the Trib’s explanation:

1. Many city workers make a lot more than average Chicagoans.

The generous wages and benefits given to many in the roughly 38,000-strong municipal workforce amount to 80 percent of the cost of running the city’s government, making it impossible to significantly cut the budget without reducing personnel costs.

2. The city depends heavily on taxing real estate sales.

Despite the burgeoning housing crisis, which began last year, Daley’s budget analysts expected to reap $210 million from real estate transfer tax revenue this year, slightly more than in 2007. Instead, with the real estate sales slumping, the city’s analysts believe that this revenue will total no more than $155 million. No other municipality in the state has a higher real estate transfer tax than Chicago’, according to the Chicago Association of Realtors.

3. Millions of tax dollars are siphoned to boost development.

More than $500 million a year goes into the city’s tax-increment financing (TIF) accounts, according to Cook County Clerk David Orr. Diverted from property tax revenues in Chicago’s 160-odd TIF districts, the funds are used to subsidize development projects in those areas rather than going to the school system, parks and the city’s general fund. That main operating fund, which supports police, fire and other services, is the one that is facing a funding shortfall.

4. City Hall builds little cushion into the budget.

Every year’s budget is merely a forecast of how much government expects to rake in and how much of that money will be spent. City officials should keep 5 percent to 15 percent of their operating budget in reserve, according to the Chicago-based Government Finance Officers Association.

Wages, real estate, TIFs, and cushion… but where’s the Transparency? Citizens should have easy access to lobbying costs, ethics policies, audits, and tax information on the city government website. As a Chicago resident, I feel the pinch of big government every day- yearly parking fees, rising transit costs, bottled water taxes, the highest sales tax in the nation, etc etc etc… Maybe Cook County voters wouldn’t be considering an advisory referendum to add a recall provision if they were confident their money was being spent responsibly.

Look here for the Windy City transparency information I was able to find.

Category: No Taxation Without Information