Chicago Teachers Union president owes city over $3.3K
Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates not only refuses to pay her Chicago utility bills, she refuses to pay city fines. She owes over $3,300.
As president of both the Chicago Teachers Union and Illinois Federation of Teachers, Stacy Davis Gates wants government to take more from Chicagoans and businesses.
But despite making $273,105 as a union boss, she apparently doesn’t believe government should take from her.
Davis Gates has let $1,544 in Chicago water, sewer and trash bills pile up, according to the city’s Freedom of Information Act response from Dec. 16. She also owes the city $1,843 for parking tickets and speed violations.
Letting past-due bills pile up is not something new for Davis Gates. She previously let her city utility bills go for over three years and hit nearly $5,700, meaning other Chicagoans were expected to carry her utility costs.
She’s still behind on city utilities, but now her traffic fines are also someone else’s problem.
Davis Gates constantly calls for the “wealthy” to pay their “fair share,” yet she just can’t seem to pay her home utility bills and traffic fines on time. She also took advantage of a property tax break on her Indiana house to which she wasn’t entitled – until local leaders found out and made her pay $1,533.
With Davis Gates’ notorious tenure marked by scandal, it is no surprise CTU drew federal scrutiny for secrecy and potential financial shenanigans.
For over 1,950 days, CTU had been withholding information from members and not following its own internal rules mandating it provide an audit of its finances to members every year.
In November 2025, the U.S. House Education and Workforce Committee requested the union’s audits from 2019 to 2024. CTU released the audits on Jan. 16, which came with an auditor’s warning that at least two did not reflect the true state of union finances.
CTU’s lack of transparency could prompt Congress to consider new legislation requiring labor unions to better disclose financial information to members.
By keeping members in the dark for over five years, CTU made it clear its members are not a priority and transparency about the use of member dues is not valued. Davis Gates publicly attacked one member for asking about the audits, claiming the request was a racist “dog whistle.”
From urging violence on principals to failing to provide CTU annual financial audits to its members, taking an undeserved property tax break and much more, Davis Gates is CTU’s engine for scandal.