Chicago`s aldermen watched Mayor Richard Daley give his bad news budget message Tuesday in uncharacteristic quiet, wondering how they would reshape that news for the voters.
Daley`s speech, wrapped in rhetoric about jolting his bureaucracy and demanding better accountability from City Hall, left stunned aldermen in stony silence, facing the prospect of having to sell constituents on $84 million in extra taxes-including a $25 million property tax increase-with the threat of millions more in taxes to come before 1992 is over and unions get pay raises. It was the first time in recent memory that a mayor`s budget message wasn`t interrupted by even a smattering of applause.
”At least it`s not Chinese water torture over years,” said one Daley aide, quickly scanning the mayor`s speech before it was formally delivered to the council. ”He`s giving it to them all at once.”
Although a city budget with tax increases normally would cause Daley to dominate the news, the anguished U.S. Senate vote on Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas drew attention away from City Hall, and even the few Daley critics remaining in the council agreed the mayor`s timing was fortunate.
”Everybody in America is looking at the Senate, not at $84 million in new city taxes,” said Ald. Robert Shaw (9th). ”He gets the Thomas thing today and the Iraq war when he ran for election. How does he do it?”
As with all government budgets, this one is a political document, open to negotiations and lobbying by aldermen and special-interest groups-from those representing corporations to those who want longer library hours.
Though the tax increases and the layoffs of more than 1,000 workers get the publicity, the political maneuvering by aldermen to reinstate some cuts or modify others will be done later in the normally dreary proceedings of the council`s Budget Committee.
But while aldermen lobby for changes-from where new sewers will go to what police districts will get more police officers-the aldermen will also be asking Daley for another consideration: to save their political skins in the remapping of the city`s 50 wards that he will oversee.
As the Daley aide noted, releasing a negative budget almost immediately after an election is a time-honored political tradition. Daley has years to improve his image after taxpayers grumble about digging into their wallets.
Specifically, the mayor`s budget includes a 2.8 percent increase in water and sewer rates for Chicago residents. Suburban residents would get smacked a little harder, with a 4 percent water rate increase that comes on top of a 6 percent suburban water increase imposed last July.
He also adds two new taxes, a 5 percent tax on out-of-state long distance phone calls and a 1 percent tax on big-ticket items bought outside the city.
And Daley also plans to cut by 16 hours a week the time branch libraries are open in Chicago.
The mayor did make some other bold moves, including laying off about 1,000 city workers and telling the unions that their workers must begin paying insurance premiums to cover city health-care system costs that have overwhelmed past administrations.
”He showed great courage in this budget,” said Samuel Mitchell, president of the Chicago Association of Commerce and Industry, in commenting on the layoffs and Daley`s message that union workers contribute to their health-care plans. ”But cutting those workers, this is a watershed in the history of Chicago, this is a major step, a clear indication he`s trying to get control of the growth of government. It is painful, but he did it.
Toni Hartrich, director of the Civic Federation of Chicago, a watchdog group, also praised Daley for taking dramatic steps as federal and state revenues decline.
”The mayor certainly deserves credit for biting the bullet,” Hartrich said. ”It is never easy to lay employees off. But he seems to realize we`ve come to a time when hard decisions have to be made.”
Perhaps the most difficult decision Daley had to make was to attach his name to what is, in effect, a $25 million property tax increase. In 1989, the mayor used money from the 2 percent state income tax increase to roll back property taxes by that amount, and referred to the rollback at almost every campaign stop.
But cuts in state revenues, Daley`s administration said, forced him to
”reinstitute the 1989 property tax levels,” as one aide said. Regardless of the political jargon, that means taxpayers will have to reach into their wallets again, and Daley knows it.
That property tax increase alone caused aldermen of almost every political stripe to say that the people in their wards will want to fight the increases.
”It`s hard to sell this budget, the increases in sewer and water rates, because people don`t want to pay high taxes and because the south end of the city is flooded sometimes,” said Ald. William Beavers (7th). ”People don`t like taxes, period, especially when they thought they got a tax cut.”
That concept was echoed by dozens of others.
Ald. Eugene Schulter (47th), who has represented his North Side ward for 17 years, said any discussion of a property tax increase is sure to prompt voters to organize against it.
”People see their taxes go up, and they`re upset about it, they don`t want to pay,” Schulter said. ”There are other considerations as well. He`s talking about cutting branch library hours. We can`t afford that in my community or any community.”
