Emanuel: Budget with new taxes, sewer revamp a ‘great jobs bill’
By FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter fspielman@suntimes.com October 12, 2011 10:48AM
.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel discusses his budget with the Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board.
- Editorial: Emanuel draws budget with no quick fixes
- Mark Brown: Emanuel's city budget plan doesn't spare any sacred cows
- Mayor emanuel video
Article Extras
Updated: May 9, 2012 9:53AM
For a mayor who once promised to erase a $635.7 million shortfall without raising taxes, Rahm Emanuel sure is digging deeply into taxpayers’ pockets — to the tune of nearly $220 million in taxes, fines and fees.
The $6.3 billion 2012 budget that Emanuel unveiled Wednesday calls for nearly doubling water and sewer fees over the next four years to rebuild an aging system the mayor wants to upgrade — not privatize. The increase will cost the average Chicago homeowner $120 in 2012 alone. The only way to avoid that non-metered rate hike is to install a free water meter to measure water usage, something 316,000 Chicago homeowners have refused to do. The $147 million water and sewer rate increases are in addition to previously disclosed tax increases on hotel rooms, downtown and River North parking, city sticker fees for SUVs, valets and loading zones and fines for an array of neighborhood safety violations. The $75-a-year refuse collection rebate currently paid to condominium owners would also be eliminated. The water rate increase will be used to replace all 900 miles of the city’s century-old water pipes and reline or replace 750 miles of 100-year-old sewer lines. The $2-a-weekday hike in downtown and River North parking taxes will bankroll a new bus and rapid transit station, renovation of CTA L stations and more protected bike lanes. The $14.8 million increase in city sticker fees for SUV’s will help fill 160,000 more potholes. On July 29, Emanuel appeared to take tax increases off the table. “I’m not gonna ask people who feel nickel-and-dimed to pay more for a system that has not been re-structured,” he said on that day. “The capital I’ll spend will be political capital to make the tough choices that we have to do for the city. The capital I won’t spend is the taxpayers’ dollars.” At a meeting Wednesday with the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board, the mayor flatly denied that he had broken his promise to Chicago voters. “There’s no property tax. There’s no sales tax. So, the two major taxes, there’s no tax increase. I do not take the suggestion of others and introduce a city income tax. I rejected those,” he said. “Residents of Chicago don’t pay the hotel [tax]. The [parking tax] goes right into mass transit, and it’s a way to deal with congestion downtown. And it’s only during the weekdays. The loading zones and valets — I have an asset. You all told me to act like a businessman. The asset is totally under-priced.” After rejecting calls to privatize Chicago’s water system — something the City Council wouldn’t approve anyway after the parking meter debacle — Emanuel opted for, what he called a “great jobs bill.” “I didn’t just raise the rates. I’m rebuilding the system. … We will not have the city we want if we don’t keep the resources we have and invest in ‘em,” he said. “We have to do it because we pay this price today ... in flooded basements, mainly but not limited to minority communities all over the city. We pay this price in flooded streets. We pay this price in broken axles, flat tires, sunken cars.” The decision to eliminate 1,252 police vacancies is aimed at saving $82 million and ending, what Emanuel called the annual budget “charade” of authorizing police hiring without any intention of fulfilling that promise. Instead, Emanuel said he plans to be “honest” with Chicago taxpayers and hold open only100 vacancies — enough to hire “at least two” classes of police recruits. It will be the first police hiring since September, 2010. If Police Supt. Garry McCarthy needs even more officers to keep pace with an annual attrition rate of 500 to 600, “We’ll find the money to pay for them,” the mayor said. “They will be real officers on the beat — not ghost officers on a budget line ... I’m not going to play that game any longer,” the mayor said in his first budget address to the City Council. Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th), chairman of the City Council’s Finance Committee, appeared to be somewhat skeptical of the mayor’s decision to close out 1,252 police vacancies after a two-year hiring slowdown has created a severe manpower shortage. “I defer to the superintendent of police, whom I have great confidence in. If he believes he can police the streets and keep the citizens safe with that number of personnel, then so be it. It’s on his watch and he’s putting his reputation on the line,” Burke said. The Chicago Sun-Times reported earlier this week that the Chicago Police Department will close three district police stations in 2012 — Wood, Belmont and Prairie — consolidate police and detective areas from five to three and merge Police and Fire Department headquarters and specialized units. On Wednesday, the mayor called station closings the “third rail of Chicago politics.” Opposition from aldermen whose wards include the targeted districts underscored the mayor’s claim. “It’s a matter of perception. The perception is, we’re gonna have less protection,” said Ald. Roberto Maldonado (26th). The proposal to raise the city’s hotel tax from 3.5 to 4.5 percent is drawing fire from the hotel industry. City Clerk Susana Mendoza is leading the charge against the sticker fee for SUV’s on grounds that “soccer Moms” already pay more and should not be targeted again. But, it is the decision to eliminate the condo rebate that has lakefront aldermen mobilizing to find a $9 million replacement. “For me and the residents I represent downtown, it’s a matter of fairness,” said Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd). Ald. Pat O’Connor (40th), the mayor’s City Council floor leader, acknowledged that changes will likely be necessary to round up the 26 votes needed to approve the mayor’s first budget. “If they have ideas that can save equivalent amounts of money, there can be tweaking and trading … I don’t think it’s his way or the highway,” O’Connor said of the mayor.
