CHICAGO RUN INTO THE GROUND FINANCIALLY BY DEMOCRATS FOR LAST 50 YEARS FINALLY ADMITS ITS FINANCIAL WOES




As usual, Democrats have ruined another city, and the State of Illinois financially, as expected.

The city government is run by an army of no show supervisors, workers who work 35 hours if at all and another army of assistant department heads and other lazy city "workers".

Finally it has all caught up with the wasted money. The city is broke, the state is even worse off financially...and what is the remedy instead of cutting the needless expenses of overblown and "fat" workforce???? RAISING TAXES OF COURSE!

Most of the city already looks like either a war zone or a drug dispensary or sections of Iraq....yet the city is going to propose more taxes and fees to feed the waste of bloated salaried minions.

Chicago was given many painful ways to escape budget mess
City income tax, Lake Shore Drive tolls, higher ambulance fees among options suggested by inspector general. Raise and raise taxes and fees.

By Hal Dardick, Kristen Mack and John Chase, Tribune reporters

As Mayor Rahm Emanuel prepares to present his first budget next month, Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson is tossing out dozens of ways to raise more money and cut the size of city government.

Many of them are politically poisonous: a city income tax, tolls on Lake Shore Drive, higher ambulance fees. Others could conceivably gain traction: making garbage pickup more efficient, cutting layers of management and making all city employees work 40 hours a week.

Each of the 63 ideas, Ferguson says, is pointed toward highlighting the desperate plight of city finances in the coming years and the need for action to head off a financial meltdown.

"The problem is so severe that to honestly and fully address the budget imbalance will almost certainly require difficult choices that reduce the services the city delivers, increase taxes and fees on city residents, or more likely a combination of both," Ferguson indicated.

The options, outlined in a report to be released Tuesday, are sure to be conversation fodder at City Hall.

Ferguson makes clear that he does not endorse any particular combination of tax increases and cost cuts. Instead, he aims to spark debate as Emanuel enters the final weeks of drafting a budget plan that somehow must bridge a massive budget shortfall of nearly $636 million.

Emanuel has ruled out tax increases to balance the budget and been less strident about increasing fees.

Ferguson offers up 19 tax and fee hike options that he says could generate $2.17 billion if they were put in place, though he acknowledges many of them are political long shots.

Perhaps at the top of that list is the idea of a 1 percent city income tax, which Ferguson estimates could bring in $500 million a year. The city doesn't have an income tax, and the Democrats who run state government just raised the Illinois income tax rate from 3 percent to 5 percent in January.

Taxing suburbanites also is an option, Ferguson writes. Imposing a commuter income tax of 1 percent to non-Chicago residents who work in the city is one idea. Another: charging as much as $5 in tolls each way to motor down the city's iconic Lake Shore Drive — but only if the city decides not to charge $5 for those who drive downtown during morning or afternoon rush hours.

The report also states that charging the city's higher 9 percent amusement tax on all performances, including those staged in smaller venues or by nonprofit groups, and taxing health club memberships could boost the city's bottom line by $105 million a year.

Water and sewer rates have increased in recent years, and Ferguson suggests hiking them to the national average for both city and suburban residents could bring in $380 million a year more.

Doubling the $725 ambulance fee could be problematic, Ferguson notes, because the city just did so in 2009. Increasing it again could cause low-income residents to stop using ambulances to avoid paying the fee, he added.

Raising taxes and fees is politically difficult in the best of times. Some of Ferguson's potential $660 million in spending cuts could get a warmer reception at City Hall, despite his sometimes strained relationship with the new mayor.

Emanuel already likes the concept of picking up garbage based on a city grid, rather than the city's misshapen hodgepodge of 50 wards. Ferguson's report also noted that privatizing city garbage and recycling collection would save $165 million. If that is not done, creating a grid system for garbage collection could instead save $46.7 million a year, according to Ferguson's report.

Emanuel has opened the door to both ideas, with private companies set to start picking up recycling in sections of the city next week and a look already under way at whether a grid system would work.

Ferguson suggests slashing the number of supervisors, a step he said could save $190 million a year. Emanuel also supports that idea. The mayor also backs another concept in the Ferguson report: increasing the workweek of all city employees to 40 hours. Some city workers are on the job only 35 hours a week.

In one area of disagreement, Ferguson said eliminating all tax increment finance districts would bring in approximately $100 million more a year. But Emanuel recently made it clear he would continue to rely on TIF districts as an economic tool, even as he tries to blunt public criticism that marred them in recent years.

Ferguson issued a smaller-scale budget report in October 2010, and aldermen lambasted it, saying it was replete with warmed-over cost-cutting ideas that would go nowhere. Aldermen will no doubt weigh in on the larger-scale report Tuesday.

Even if the mayor and council figure out this year's budget, a sharp increase in pension costs looms in 2015, Ferguson warns. In that year alone, the city will have to find an additional $555 million to fund worker pensions.

"In the current economic climate, the city's current level of spending, when matched to the city's current revenue structure, is unsustainable," Ferguson wrote.

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