Chicago School Supt. Ted Kimbrough is trying to play a game at which even masters have failed, and he`s clearly no master of this particular sport.
The game is to portray the school board budget picture in the bleakest terms to try to wring money from the legislature and moderation from the unions.
Kimbrough continues to insist that the schools` budget deficit remains just where he set it in early May-$315.8 million, not a nickel less. Yet, in a presentation this week to a school board committee, he ticked off a list of changed circumstances-a combination of unexpected income and proposed cuts-that total nearly $75 million.
Does that lower the estimate to $240 million or so? Kimbrough says it doesn`t, because not all the changes have been absolutely finalized and he fears he`ll lose public credibility if he ”keeps changing the number.”
Unfortunately, Kimbrough`s intransigence is discrediting both the superintendent and the Chicago schools budget process-a process that already had precious little credibility to spare.
The increased revenues come from new property reassessments and a recently announced hike in the state ”multiplier” that upwardly adjusts county property values. Kimbrough projects the increased tax revenues at around $50 million. But he declines to subtract this amount from his deficit, saying the ”multiplier” figure is tentative.
Kimbrough is relatively new to Chicago, so he`s probably unaware that it is exceedingly unlikely that the final figure will drop-it hasn`t in the memory of anyone involved-so this is money he can bank on.
Certainly, until the legislature completes its business in the next few days, major uncertainties will remain about the schools` revenue supply-most notably, whether the income-tax surcharge will remain. Those who have worked with Kimbrough in dissecting the school system`s finances believe his original projection was a sincerely drawn, if worst-case, scenario.
But his adherence to an out-of-date figure obscures the critical point, and that is this: Whether the deficit is now closer to $200 million, as some analysts say, or the $240 million that Kimbrough`s own numbers add up to, Chicago schools have a giant financial hole. Drastic measures will still be needed.
Keeping the number artificially high only obscures the crisis and discourages already cynical Chicagoans from any inclination to take serious action to solve it.
