WFB:
A new report from the city of Chicago’s outgoing chief financial officer indicates Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot faces an estimated $740 million budget shortfall as she prepares to take over for Rahm Emanuel.
Initially, Emanuel’s administration predicted the budget shortfall would be around $500 million but Wednesday’s report suggested they were off by nearly $200 million due to poor performance by the city’s pension investments and “the city’s move away from so-called ‘scoop-and-toss’ borrowing — the practice of paying off old debt by creating new debt.”
The increased shortfall comes even as the city has seen a higher than expected increase in tax revenue according to the report released by Carole Brown, the outgoing CFO.
A large part of the shortfall is due to “the expected cost of retroactive pay hikes the city will have to finance when current negotiations over a new contract are resolved” for police and firefighters.
The nearly three-quarters of a billion dollar budget gap represents approximately 20 percent of the city’s total operating budget.
Lightfoot recently suggested the city was in a “dire” financial situation after an April briefing from budget officials in Emanuel’s administration. In a press conference Friday she contested the Emanuel number, saying, “It’s worse than that. I’m not sure why they choose to put that number out because it’s not accurate.” more here
Huh … wonder what the Demonrats done did with the money …
I find it hard to believe that ~3/4 of a Billion dollars just evaporated.
Maybe they should look in the couch cushions?
izlamo delenda est …
^^This^^ during the greatest bull market of all time. Any guesses what will happen when the market trends down?
Tim, while it is hard to believe that three quarters of a billion dollars can disappear, it can be done. Ask Mrs DeBlasio.
That’s why they elected a lesbian African wonder woman to solve all their problems!
Goodness me, more proof that it is never a revenue problem but as always it’s a spending addiction problem,!
First of all, despite the article implying she’s taking over for Rahm Emanuel, she isn’t. She’s the Mayor-elect. On top of retroactive pay hikes and unfunded pensions there are vendors to pay as well. Wonder how they’re doing in this socialist utopia.
If you have not visited Chicago lately but think you might, don’t bother. It really has turned into a shit hole. For a city of that size it really has little to offer. Certainly there are unique places to eat and drink if you don’t mind dropping some serious cash for it. But the hassles aren’t worth the entertainment value. The roads have turned into rubble, the buildings are falling down and the labor force is lazy and corrupt as shit. AOC would fit right in. Many, many slugs here. Save your money and take a vacation somewhere warm and sunny, not damp and dreary Chitcago.
A related and under reported story unfolding; a vast area of farmland in the Midwest including all of Illinois still hasn’t been planted due to one storm after another sweeping through. Chicago depends on robbing the farmers to keep it going.
@ecp: “Chicago” is spelled “B a i l o u t” during the next financial crisis. If Trump is in office at the time, it will be Congress that pushes it.
Sure you can trust a politician…to take you over a financial cliff…
Democrats believe you can gorge yourself at a buffet line to lose weight, drink your way to sobriety, and spend your way out of bankruptcy.
Just raise the taxes and all Chicago’s problems will go away.
Now….on to California to make their problems go away too. Do I have to do everything around here?
12-15 years ago there were two guys on the radio constantly telling people what a corrupt mob run city this is Nothing has or will ever change. (I wish I could remember their names. They moved on to Calif.)
When are the elected fools going to learn that when you take in less than you spend that you will have a budget problem! And that there’s only so much you can take from the working people until they are both broke and decide to stop working also!
“I gave your grandmothers free bus rides!”
(Rod Blagojevich)
Epitomizes the nihilist/socialist mindset –
one: that the governor can “give” – he perceives himself as god – or (minimally) god-anointed
two: that something is “free” – simply because he (the god or god-anointed) deems it so
Delusional is the best that can be said of them – criminally insane is probably closer to the mark.
izlamo delenda est …
Have you ever noticed that every new Mayor, and I mean every one of them will hold a press conference a day or two after taking office to announce the fiscal problem of the city is far worse then what they had imagined/were lead to believe/had been told. That the taxes they promised they would cut have to “temporarily” remain in place and that new taxes and increase would have to be, again, “temporarily” put into place to balance the budget in 10 years, the same budget they promised to balance in 2 during the election.