Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Friday defended the way he has dealt with the city’s looming financial crisis against attacks from his challengers, touting his record of crafting the city’s budget during his first term but refusing to rule out a property tax increase to deal with huge upcoming government worker pension payments.
The back-and-forth took place at the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board endorsement session, the second time all five mayoral candidates appeared face to face.
City Hall has a looming $550 million payment to make to shore up police and fire department pensions, and 2nd Ward Ald. Bob Fioretti called on Emanuel to say whether he would take a property tax hike off the table to balance the city’s budget. “Tell us, the people, now, are you going to raise property taxes for next year?” Fioretti asked.
Emanuel said he would not raise property taxes for the next operating budget but wouldn’t give the same guarantee when it comes to the pension payment.
“Not for the operating budget, there won’t be (a property tax increase). We’ve done that (without a property tax increase) four years in a row,” said Emanuel, who has raised property taxes for Chicago Public Schools. “What I’m going to do is work through the pension issues, and I’m going to be honest and straightforward as we work through the issues as it relates to pensions, but the operating budget we’re going to continue to do it. I don’t know yet (whether there will be a property tax increase to pay for pensions), because that’s the time that you work through the budget.”
Emanuel argued he has done “the tough thing, the strong thing” by trying to work with some unions to enact changes to their pensions. Two lawsuits have been filed by union members and retirees against those proposed changes and could end up at the Illinois Supreme Court.
Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia said the mayor has not lived up to his talk of fixing the city’s precarious financial situation. “We don’t know what the state of the city’s finances will be after that Supreme Court ruling,” he said. “So the city finances are still a huge question mark. He promised to put them in order, and they’re not.”
Garcia said he opposes both a property tax increase and changes to worker benefits to fix pensions. While it’s unclear where Garcia would find extra money, after the forum he did say he would consider legalizing marijuana in Chicago “because the city needs revenue.”
Community activist William “Dock” Walls said current and former city workers should continue to get the benefits they were promised. He said he would consider some kind of tax “on those people who can afford a tax.”
Businessman Willie Wilson advocated during the forum that the city raise money by bidding out for contracts more fairly. Raising corporate taxes would just end up hurting residents, he said.
Friday’s forum came three days after Emanuel shared the floor with his challengers for the first time at an endorsement forum with the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board.
Emanuel has also agreed to appear with his opponents at the WTTW-Ch. 11 “Chicago Tonight” forum Feb. 4; WLS-Ch. 7/Univision/League of Women Voters candidate debate Feb. 5; and the WBBM-Ch. 2/WVON-AM 1690/Urban League candidate debate Feb. 10.
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