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Kinda looks like magic money
Wednesday, Dec 3, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller * As you probably know, a group of Chicago alderpersons proposed a competing budget idea to Mayor Brandon Johnson’s fiscal plan yesterday. Click here for the synopsis. The proposal makes $441.4 million in adjustments including eliminating the mayor’s $100 million corporate “head tax,” restoring $139.9 million in advance pension payments and funding $166 million in firefighter back pay without borrowing. The council proposal includes $441.4 million in revenue sources. The greatest single amount, $150 million - about a third of the entire proposal - is an undefined “Improved Debt Collections” line. * It’s not at all clear how the city is supposed to do that. It has had real trouble for decades collecting debt, much of which is deemed uncollectible. The idea was mentioned briefly and mostly down deep in some news stories. Tribune…
WTTW…
Discuss.
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- Rahm's Parking Meter - Wednesday, Dec 3, 25 @ 2:30 pm:
That Mayoral press conference went off the rails yesterday and the unnecessary swipes at Michael Sacks were very uncalled for. He just will not grow into the job. He is not a union organizer anymore.
- ArchPundit - Wednesday, Dec 3, 25 @ 2:34 pm:
The left-wing waste fraud and abuse. You can probably improve collections but just saying you will do it doesn’t balance your budget.
- hmmm - Wednesday, Dec 3, 25 @ 2:47 pm:
Why not keep the efficiencies and work with the Mayor to make his better? Brandon is pie in the sky sometimes, but these alderpeople are even worse than him on this issue!!!
- charles in charge - Wednesday, Dec 3, 25 @ 2:52 pm:
==the unnecessary swipes at Michael Sacks were very uncalled for.==
Is the poor victim of these “unnecessary swipes” the same Michael Sacks who’s funding a dark-money group dedicated to taking down MBJ?
- Amalia - Wednesday, Dec 3, 25 @ 2:59 pm:
I love the debt collection idea. let’s start by making public who owes money. start with the biggest entities who owe and the biggest amounts owed.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Dec 3, 25 @ 3:02 pm:
===I love the debt collection idea===
And that’s all it is. No plan, no nothing. The new fiscal year starts in a few weeks.
- Casper the Ghost Bus - Wednesday, Dec 3, 25 @ 3:11 pm:
Have they considered selling the Thompson Center?
- Incandenza - Wednesday, Dec 3, 25 @ 3:13 pm:
There might not be a specific plan to collect debt, but it is a significant issue that people can go around owing the city hundreds of thousands of dollars (and sometimes still get grants). If there is no repercussions for not paying your debt, more people will opt out of paying water, parking tickets, etc. Collecting the debt should be seen as a deterrent in addition to a revenue source.
- Rudy’s teeth - Wednesday, Dec 3, 25 @ 3:15 pm:
Why not publish the names of the scofflaws who owe debt to the city. Or send Tony and Moose to their doorstep. Time’s up.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Dec 3, 25 @ 3:19 pm:
This is what it kinda reminds me of…
Rauner’s budget plan also counts on $4.6 billion under a category called “working together on ‘grand bargain,’ a bargain that is still being negotiated in the Senate. Rauner’s budget director Scott Harry nonetheless insisted Rauner had presented a balanced budget to the General Assembly. https://capitolfax.com/2017/02/16/working-together-on-grand-bargain/
- Excitable Boy - Wednesday, Dec 3, 25 @ 3:29 pm:
- under a category called “working together on ‘grand bargain,’ -
Man I forgot about that banger. Truly hilarious times.
- Steve - Wednesday, Dec 3, 25 @ 3:34 pm:
There’s no easy or even moderate ways to cut in Chicago. With already high taxes : how do you raise taxes even higher without diminishing returns? The solutions to the budget deal with costs. Costs are going up higher than revenues. Chicago isn’t an island, it has competition . How many people are shopping at Wal-Marts that ring the city? How many people are buying liquor outside the city? How many people gas up outside Cook County. At some point higher taxes don’t yield more revenue.
- Three Dimensional Checkers - Wednesday, Dec 3, 25 @ 3:38 pm:
===Why not publish the names of the scofflaws who owe debt to the city. Or send Tony and Moose to their doorstep. Time’s up.===
Because there are laws about how much money a court can make poor people pay towards their debts.
There is a whole section in the Law Department for collections and many outside counsel firms handling collections cases (and making good money doing it). I’m not saying they’re immune from criticism, but I agree you need to give a little more details about what they should be doing differently to count on $150 million more dollars.
- FearTheTree - Wednesday, Dec 3, 25 @ 4:06 pm:
“There’s no easy or even moderate ways to cut in Chicago …. At some point higher taxes don’t yield more revenue”
I don’t see your point?
If you’re saying that the City can’t raise garbage taxes or liquor fees (with which I agree), and that it’s too difficult to cut the budget, then what’s your recommendation?
- Gordon Willis - Wednesday, Dec 3, 25 @ 4:07 pm:
Casper the Ghost Bus for the win.
- Iron Duke - Wednesday, Dec 3, 25 @ 4:08 pm:
A good start would be payroll deductions for scofflaws employed by the City.
Mayor Johnson owed over $4,000 in unpaid water, sewer, traffic and parking tickets that he did not pay off until March of 2023, right before he was sworn into office.
- ElTacoBandito - Wednesday, Dec 3, 25 @ 4:11 pm:
==and urges the city to increase its estimates on tax revenue collection by $31.6 million, saying the mayor’s plan is too conservative.==
The “Alternative Alders” cannot portray MBJ as the irresponsible budgeteer when you pull moves like this. What’s the basis.
- Pundent - Wednesday, Dec 3, 25 @ 4:12 pm:
There’s a reason that GAAP rules require you to classify “bad debts” as such. Unless the city has created some sort of magic collection powers, this can’t be taken seriously. There are no easy fixes, only honest ones. Budgeting $150M of improved debt collection isn’t being honest. And if there is room for improvement why has it been ignored?
- 47th Ward - Wednesday, Dec 3, 25 @ 4:38 pm:
What Iron Duke said. City employees who parking tickets fees and fines is low hanging fruit. Cops, teachers, park district employees, anybody collecting a public paycheck that owes the public money should be garnished.
But even if all city employee scofflaws lay up, it’s no where near $150 million.
- Amalia - Wednesday, Dec 3, 25 @ 4:58 pm:
@Iron Duke and @47th Ward I recall a time when you could not get employed by the city if you had debt to the City. if that is not the case, collect or no paycheck. as for the poor and owing money, there must be some solution. maybe start by not creating more debt, someone talk to those who owe. As I wrote above in support of the debt collection idea, publish the names of large entities that owe, and those individuals who owe the most money. on line spreadsheet. newspapers will cherry pick names. oh well. pay up. Sure there are administrators in the city staff who work on this but we need a more transparent strategy. pay up.
- Pundent - Wednesday, Dec 3, 25 @ 5:33 pm:
=City employees who parking tickets fees and fines is low hanging fruit.=
Could be that fruit is already being picked. I don’t know. Nor do I know the full extent of the $150M in bad debts. We have to understand the problem before we can start spitballing solutions. And that’s where this proposal fails. While possible I doubt that we’ve simply ignored debt collection. And I suspect that improved debt collection likely involves an investment in people and technology. And that certainly comes at a cost. How many of the debtors have moved, died, gone out of business, or are otherwise judgement proof? Absent further details the suggestion can’t be taken seriously.
- Steve - Wednesday, Dec 3, 25 @ 6:36 pm:
-then what’s your recommendation?-
You have to start with labor costs. Organized labor has to help out to keep the entire system solvent. Also, Chicago has to uphold its’ committment to all pensioners .
- Just Me 2 - Wednesday, Dec 3, 25 @ 9:27 pm:
I wrote to my Alderman that there is savings opportunity by decreasing BACP to provide temporary permits for new bars/restaurants, signs, and many of the other permits. The Department can issue the temporary permit, and then spot check them randomly or if complaints are received, and if after a year if there are no issues then issue a standard permit.
Besides a large savings in staff costs, businesses can get up and running months faster (a new bar in my neighborhood had to wait 7 months after they were ready to open to receive their official permit).
My Alderman’s criticism of my idea was too many employees would get laid off and they’d be unlikely to get a new role elsewhere in city government.
- Thomas Paine - Wednesday, Dec 3, 25 @ 9:45 pm:
=== You have to start with labor costs.===
Police, Fire, and Aviation account for 2/3 of city employees.
The most waste is probably in Water Department, but the easiest place to cut deep is probably the Law Department. You could fire 100 lawyers and never even notice.