Mayor Richard Daley on Wednesday easily won City Council approval of his final budget, a record-high spending plan balanced by drawing down dwindling reserves instead of the deep cuts critics say are needed to maintain the city's financial health.
The $6.15 billion budget includes no new taxes, fees or fines -- a key selling point when all 50 City Council seats are on the ballot in February's municipal election. Aldermen voted 43-7 to approve the mayor's plan with no major changes.
"My concern is, what are we leaving our next mayor with this budget," Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, one of the few to vote no, said during the debate. "It's an election-year budget. We're kicking the can down the road."
Daley announced he would not seek a record seventh term even as he was formulating his budget plans this fall, so it's unclear whether his traditional iron grip on the council would have won the day if he had proposed a lame-duck plan that raised taxes or made deep cuts.
"We have not kicked the can," he said. "We have not placed whoever the mayor is in a difficult position."
The mayor said the city expects to have a $576 million reserve fund at the end of next year, even after steep revenue declines in recent years. "I believe we have protected the city in the future," he said. "We're very proud of what we accomplished, dealing with this difficult economy."
Ald. Carrie Austin, 34th, who chairs the Budget Committee, praised the plan. "People are really, truly hurting, and they do not need additional taxes," she said.
But in a high-level acknowledgement that the city's financial condition is precarious, Austin and Ald. Edward Burke chose Wednesday to propose a $1 surcharge on all city cab rides to "shore up future city deficits."
"Our taxicab fares in Chicago are less than most of the major cities in America, and it seems to me to be a painless, easy way to generate about $70 million (a year) that we sorely need," said Burke, 14th, chairman of the Finance Committee.
Burke also proposed a $400 daily "environmental impact fee" on all incoming diesel commuter trains to raise $36 million a year, but said the moves were not indications that he anticipates a deficit next year.
To close a 2011 revenue shortfall once projected to approach $655 million, the city will draw down $288 million in reserves created with the long-term leases of the Chicago Skyway and city parking meter system. Less than 7 percent of the $1.15 billion upfront payment for the meter lease will be left at the end of next year.
By declaring $180 million in once-sacrosanct special taxing district funds as surplus, $38 million will be pumped into city coffers. Most of the rest will go to Chicago Public Schools.
The city also will save about $142 million by refinancing debt, upped its original revenue predictions by $91 million and eliminated 277 jobs.
Some aldermen contend the revenue predictions are too rosy, as they have been in past years, and they note that the budget relies in part on unions agreeing to extend a deal to take 24 unpaid days off each year. Some also said the budget fails to address the growing problem of underfunded pensions for city workers.
"Again this year we came up with a few more rabbits to pull out of a hat, some probably over-optimistic revenue projections, raiding what was left of the parking meter fund," said Ald. Joe Moore, 49th, who voted against the budget. "The quick-fix solutions are about done."
During the budget debate, Daley stood at the front of the council chambers, laughed and made fun of aldermen who voted against his budget proposal but then in favor of community programs paid for with federal funds, suggesting his critics were somehow being inconsistent.
When Moore, a frequent Daley critic who's often quoted by the media, voted for the federal funding, Daley became theatrical. "Oh, Joe, you can't, please," Daley said, sweeping his hands up as he turned to face the press gallery. "You can't interview him anymore. What's going to happen?"
Later, he criticized aldermen who spoke against the budget but offered no legislative proposals to change the document.
"In order to submit an amendment, you have to have leadership qualities, and if you really believe in it, you submit it," Daley said.
It was the final budget vote for nine aldermen who are not running for re-election. They include Ald. Ed Smith, 28th, whose retirement at the end of the month became public during the day.
--Hal Dardick and John Byrne
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