Chicago Public Schools is faced with the possibility of closing school early while Chicago sits on massive property wealth.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel is spending money promised for rebates on police body cameras, a legal defense fund for undocumented immigrants and other programs.

To address the city’s worsening financial crises, Chicago politicians turned up the dial on their usual answer to budgetary woes: raising taxes.

Chicago would create new transit-based super TIFs before the close of the year in order to secure federal funding, while adding more opportunities for city-run slush funds to hoard tax dollars.

Each year, the City Council holds hearings for every city department to justify their annual appropriation. These hearings are sparsely attended and rarely touch on spending. This year, more than half of Chicago aldermen skipped budget hearings.

Some steps have been taken to dissolve unnecessary units of governments, but taxpayers need an easier path to eliminate wasteful governmental bodies.