Thank for sharing this! I personally find budget talks super difficult to follow, and you made this very neat and concise.
Also, thanks for holding the line about structural spending changes instead of one off patches. You did a great job of being diplomatic in your assessment, but I think you have latitude to be more directly critical about our spending choices. A 50% jump in HR spending with no discernable reduction in hiring timelines is bananas.
I understand the drive not to do cuts to Public Safety, but I would have liked to see analysis of those depts since 2020 given
a) the sheer size of the departments involved and
b) there's a proposal to cut vacant positions from CPD to avoid the property tax hike, and I'd like some analysis of that from a group other than the advocates for the cut and people who are reflexively against it (seemingly the only two camps I can find analysis from).
Side note, have either of you tried to do any analysis for how many more housing units Chicago would have needed to add to avoid any of the mayors proposed property tax hikes? I wonder if there's any proposed housing YIMBYs can point to and say "If we build exactly this three years ago when the developers first asked we wouldn't need to be having these conversations anyway"
(also if anyone would like further analysis of the budget I find BGA's budget snapshots to be the another fantastic tool, and they've been doing them since 2022. I'll link the overview and landing pages for each year below in case you wonder which sort of positions would be cut from the orgs
Glad you enjoyed it - and this is a fantastic comment! Both of those suggested analyses are really good ideas - might have to take a crack at either/both sometime soon.
Thank for sharing this! I personally find budget talks super difficult to follow, and you made this very neat and concise.
Also, thanks for holding the line about structural spending changes instead of one off patches. You did a great job of being diplomatic in your assessment, but I think you have latitude to be more directly critical about our spending choices. A 50% jump in HR spending with no discernable reduction in hiring timelines is bananas.
Thanks for writing!
This is a fantastic resource - wish it had been out earlier!
Great analysis as always! Surprised that you find that the Corporate Fund is only up 26%, which would put us slightly under the increases in city budget for peer cities the Trib found (https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/12/12/editorial-chicago-budget-aldermen-brandon-johnson/)
I understand the drive not to do cuts to Public Safety, but I would have liked to see analysis of those depts since 2020 given
a) the sheer size of the departments involved and
b) there's a proposal to cut vacant positions from CPD to avoid the property tax hike, and I'd like some analysis of that from a group other than the advocates for the cut and people who are reflexively against it (seemingly the only two camps I can find analysis from).
c) there's evidence that there's a fair amount of admin overlap that can be cut there (https://www.bettergov.org/2022/08/23/budget-analysis-chicagos-office-of-public-safety-administration-cost-city-more-than-it-saved/) although that might be beyond the scope of this article.
Side note, have either of you tried to do any analysis for how many more housing units Chicago would have needed to add to avoid any of the mayors proposed property tax hikes? I wonder if there's any proposed housing YIMBYs can point to and say "If we build exactly this three years ago when the developers first asked we wouldn't need to be having these conversations anyway"
(also if anyone would like further analysis of the budget I find BGA's budget snapshots to be the another fantastic tool, and they've been doing them since 2022. I'll link the overview and landing pages for each year below in case you wonder which sort of positions would be cut from the orgs
https://www.bettergov.org/2022/10/07/chicago-budget-hearings/
https://www.bettergov.org/2023/10/11/2024-chicago-budget-overview-bga-policy-snapshot/
https://www.bettergov.org/city-of-chicago-2024-budget-snapshots/
https://www.bettergov.org/2024/11/04/bga-policy-2025-city-of-chicago-budget-overview/
https://www.bettergov.org/city-of-chicago-2025-budget-snapshots/ )
Glad you enjoyed it - and this is a fantastic comment! Both of those suggested analyses are really good ideas - might have to take a crack at either/both sometime soon.