2014 Chicago budget includes tax increases, no pension solutions

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel released today his 2014 plan to close the city’s looming $338.7 million budget gap. His proposal is heavy on tax hikes and short on solutions. The mayor vowed not to close the budget gap with higher property taxes this year. Instead, the plan is to nickel and dime Chicagoans with tax...

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel released today his 2014 plan to close the city’s looming $338.7 million budget gap. His proposal is heavy on tax hikes and short on solutions.

The mayor vowed not to close the budget gap with higher property taxes this year. Instead, the plan is to nickel and dime Chicagoans with tax hikes, fees and other revenue grabs including:

• A cigarette tax increase of $0.75 per pack – making Chicago the most expensive city in the nation in which to buy a pack of cigarettes

• An increase in fees to file zoning requests and building permits in person

• A 2 percent increase in the city’s amusement tax

• An onslaught of increased fees and fines for parking and traffic violations

This nickel-and-diming does nothing to address the city’s largest budget crisis – its pensions. Instead of offering up his own pension solution, Emanuel said, “The pension crisis in Illinois will not be solved until relief is brought to Chicago.” But even Emanuel himself admitted the last time he went to Springfield to advocate for pension reform was 17 months ago.

Chicago cannot afford to wait any longer. Every Chicago household is already on the hook for more than $84,000 in debt and unfunded liabilities from the city of Chicago and its sister governments.

Chicago is losing people, income and brainpower. The city’s children are stuck in some of the state’s worst-performing schools. More people called Chicago home in 1920 than today. The city lost 200,000 people in the last decade.

Chicagoans don’t need higher taxes or half-baked reform plans. It’s time for Rahm offer up his own proposal that ends the crisis by moving toward 401(k)-style plans – and Springfield needs to deliver it. The city needs a comprehensive pension solution and spending reform. Without it, taxes will continue to increase, services will be cut and people will leave.