Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
And today he proclaimed that he would mandate furlough days for nonunion city employees to help close a budget deficit he says stands at “a couple of hundred million dollars.” But no new property taxes.
This is a surprising turn of events for the mayor, who hasn’t been reluctant to hike taxes in the past. For instance, to help close last year’s $293 million deficit, Mayor Daley raised roughly $276 million in fees, fines, and taxes, including $83.4 million in property taxes. And this was on top of his $113 million increase in what I call the TIF tax (which the mayor doesn’t acknowledge because he’s apparently convinced himself that TIFs aren’t taxes even though we have to pay them).
Then there’s the more, shall we say, realistic point of view that goes like this. With just six months left before the city submits its official bid for the 2016 Olympics to the International Olympic Committee, the last thing Mayor Daley wants or needs is to risk igniting anything remotely resembling a property tax revolt. Not when he’s trying to show the world that everyone in Chicago just can’t wait to host the games. There will of course be plenty of chances to jack up taxes next year, when he won’t have to impress the IOC.
