City Council Approves Mayor’s Big Tax Hike to Pay for Public Safety Pensions, Schools

Norman Parish | As of Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Facing a $20 billion pension crisis, Chicago City Council approved a $588 million property tax increase over the next four years – the biggest tax hike in the municipality’s history.

The 13 percent tax levy, along with various new fees, including a garbage collection one, would pay for police and fire pensions and school construction.

By a 36-14 vote on Wednesday, aldermen approved the overall $7.8 billion spending plan for 2016. In a separate vote, 35-15, the property tax and other funding sources were approved.

"I want to thank the members of the Council who voted to take decisive and determined action to right our financial ship and put progress ahead of politics,” said Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel about his budget.

Emanuel budget calls for a monthly garbage collection fee of $9.50 per household, something some aldermen strongly opposed.

The tax hike would eventually cost the owner of a $250,000 home about $588 yearly. The increase would be phased in over the next four years.

In the past, Emanuel said that if the hikes weren’t approved, massive cuts might rock the city.

“One thing we know for sure: we cannot cut our way out of this crisis,” said Emanuel in the past. “To fund our pension obligations through cuts, we would need to cut 2,500 police officers – 20 percent - from our ranks. We would need to close 48 fire stations – that represents half of our fire stations – and lay off 2,000 firefighters, about 40 percent of the force.”

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