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They won’t give an exact number, but city officials have been admitting over the last few days that they’re already looking at a substantial budget shortfall—perhaps as high as $400 million, or 6 percent of the $6.3 billion budget.
Budgets are essentially guesstimates about what’s going to happen in the year ahead. Apparently last fall’s were off by quite a ways.
Acts of God and the economy have lots to do with it—budget department spokeswoman Wendy Abrams says she can’t provide specific figures because they’re so fluid, but the unusually long, messy winter cost the city far more than it had expected, as have rising fuel costs. And the rotten economy—especially in the foundering construction and real estate sectors—has slowed the rate of money coming in.
There are a couple ways to look at this. On the one hand, city officials couldn’t have predicted how many inches of snow were going to fall last winter any more than they can control national economic forces. Then again, maybe their projections could have been more conservative. Chicago hadn’t gone through a full-on winter in a number of years, and sooner or later it was bound to happen. The housing market was in a free-fall well before the 2008 budget was drawn up.
Yet the Daley administration laid out a budget plan last fall that assumed a mild winter and a stabilizing economy. A few examples:
· The city’s Bureau of Street Operations, the division responsible for street cleaning and snow removal, had a 2004 budget of $89 million, but it was cut to $73 million by this year. (Over the same period, the budget for the Bureau of Sanitation, which handles garbage and recycling, grew from $142 million to $163 million.)
· The Department of Fleet Management, which provides the fuel for city vehicles, budgeted just a little more (a couple million) for gasoline and diesel though prices were already shooting higher.
· The 2008 budget predicted the city would bring in the same amount in real estate transfer taxes—$210 million—as it did in 2007, despite the sinking housing market. (And the city overestimated these revenues last year too.)
· Same deal with the sale of city-owned land, which rises and falls with the pace of development and real estate speculation: the city projected making $16 million this year even though it only brought in $12 million in 2007.
· Mayor Daley announced a shortfall at this time last year too.
If the budget department was overly optimistic, it had allies in the City Council—40 aldermen voted for the revenue package (though just 29 for the portion of it raising property taxes), and 37 supported the spending plan.
Now the mayor is considering employee layoffs and unpaid furloughs, and aldermen have also been told to prepare for cuts in city services. There’s nothing remotely good about this for them. No one walks around singing songs of praise to their aldermen just because the trees are trimmed and streets are swept. But if people start noticing that little things aren’t being taken care of, they’ll bitch, and whoever’s sitting in the ward office will be held responsible for the decline of the neighborhood whether it’s actually happening or not.
So what is an embattled alderman to do? Thank God there's a Republican in the White House to blame, at least for now.
The only problem is no one has money to enjoy the playground.
Plus, he can't even win in his own ward. A loser all around. Lucky his wife hasn't left him for a plumber. Or a dyke.
( $84,000.00 per year),Robert Woods($78,000.00 per year)), Elbert Galloway($87,000.00 per year), Chiquita Almo Talley($93,000.00 per year), Ron Pachal($95,000.00 per year). They are in charge of 3 Safety Specialist: Award winner William Coclanes, Cutie Alice Carter, and Derwin Know it all Thrower . Every City Department is the same way, for every Union Worker , there is 3 clout heavy Supervisor.....TOP HEAVY BABY!
It won't hurt the aldermen. There's a long time before the next election and by then the economy should be a little better.
When in doubt, just check the plaque the city installed at the top of the stairs (north of "The Bean") telling us that Millennium Park is "a gift presented to the people of Chicago from Mayor Richard M. Daley."
Funny how he thinks spending our money constitutes a "gift" to us.
Arrogant little prick, isn't he?
Arrogant little prick, isn't he?
To bring this information home to all Americans, Progressive Future has built an online tool called the Invest in US Calculator. The calculator takes a person’s 2007 income before taxes and tells you how much of that person’s tax money went to fund the war (average: $235), and how many seconds of war that bought (average: .04 seconds). Then it tells you, with that money, how many days of health coverage that could pay for (average: 25), how many days of Head Start education (average: 12), how many days of heating a home with renewable energy (average: 78), and how many days of veterans’ higher education benefits (average: 5) that money could have paid for. Then we are asking users to sign our Invest In US petition, which we plan on taking to Congress, the Platform Committees, and the media to push for new priorities for tax spending.
http://progressivefuture.org/invest-in-us-calculat...
As opposed to you and yours 'Sucking dick' with the Daley brothers?
Another gem from the comments section of:
http://secondcitycop.blogspot.com/
"Off Topic, but this comment needs to be placed where it can be read by all your readers.
Your contract:
Please do not fall for the gimmicks being offered to buy your "loyalty," such as new color schemes for our squads, new Tahoes, etc. The city can find money for this stuff, but cannot find money for your contract?
Come on guys and gals, wake up!
What is wrong with our current color scheme? How much is it going to cost to redo all the Department's vehicles?
Recently, an Order came out wherein Overtime for CAPS was canceled. I'm sure soon you will see all Overtime canceled, because of the budget, except for court related Overtime.
But, the Department keeps creating new positions.
Just announced, a Personal Assistant position was assigned to the Bureau of Strategic Deployment.
Come on people! A Personal Assistant!
In addition to the new Personal Assistant, the Bureau of Strategic Deployment has a Deputy Superintendent, an Assistant Deputy Superintendent, a Chief of Homeland Security, and a Deputy Chief of Homeland Security.
The Department has 2 CAPS Exempts: Chief of CAPS, and the Director of CAPS Implementation, who by the way, should be in jail because of his involvement with the GD's.
Why do we need 2 Exempts doing essentially the same thing?
We have a Superintendent's Policy Group. Why can't Research and Development handle policy suggestions; after all, policy falls under their purvue.
In IAD, there is a Chief, and a Director of Investigations, which will soon be filled by another FBI Special Agent who recently retired.
Look at the Personnel Division, a civilian heads Personnel now. Also, the Department has a Director of Marketing; again, isn't this a responsibility of Research and Development?
If these new spots and some existing spots were eliminated, think of the savings that could be used for your contract. At the very least, you are talking about 2 million dollars.
Let me talk about morale. They want you to be aggressive, yet you are told you will be fired if you disclose an illegal aliens status.
They have already proven that they will go after you in other ways if the Cook County justice system doesn't suffice.
Also, they tell you they have your back, but what does the Supt do, he hires an FBI Special Agent to be Director of Investigations in IAD.
What message is this sending?
Nepotism. The Supt said at one of his first meetings that he was going to eliminate clout on the job, but what does he do, he hires his Best Man, and another Fed, and now another Fed.
If you really need these positions, how about filling them with officers from within our ranks.
You mean that you couldn't find people qualified within our ranks instead of going outside the Department. A slap in your faces.
Outsiders: Deputy Superintendent of Professional Standards, Chief of Homeland Security, Director of Investigations for IAD, Director of Marketing, Director of Petrsonnel.
Not one person within our ranks is qualified to fill these spots?
Getting rid of good bosses before you even got to know them.
Hiram Grau - had the trust of the rank and file - was part of the Violence Reduction Initiatives that worked!
John Risley - knew how to handle major events - also part of the Violence Reduction Initiatives that worked.
Michael Chasen - like him or not, he was the right man for police shootings.
George Rosebrock - held 019 up to standards.
Yes the other dumps were on target: Kohlman - O'Donnell - Chizewski.
How about the fact that the Cmdr of Management and Labor Affairs was inept but was laterally moved.
M. Bonds. Terrible representative of the Department. Has done more damage than good.
Manpower. How about assigning SWAT members to Districts on all three watches. Provide them with cell phones. If a call comes out, you already have SWAT personnel working who can respond from their assigned Districts within minutes.
More manpower and less time waiting for SWAT to assemble.
Time Due. Watch Commanders are looking at your activity to base whether or not to approve your time off. They are playing favorites as well.
Guys and Gals, this is just a few things you need to look at.
Keep doing what you are doing. It is not worth loosing your job.
To the FOP, you should seriously look at a no-confidence vote.
8/10/2008 10:34:00 PM"