RIDING TO HIS OWN DEFENSE
Even though budget doesn’t sack taxpayers, mayor gets defensive on several hot topics, including new ride- hailing fee
After unveiling a 2018 budget that goes comparatively easy on Chicago taxpayers, you’d think Mayor Rahm Emanuel would run a victory lap.
Instead, the mayor was on the defensive before the Chicago Sun- Times Editorial Board— on a host of issues related to the spending plan he unveiled Wednesday.
Ride- hailing is a particularly sore point for the mayor.
For years, he’s been accused of tilting the regulatory playing field in favor of Uber, whose investors include the mayor’s brother, Hollywood super- agent Ari Emanuel.
The decision to raise ridehailing fees by just 15 cents a ride next year and another nickel in 2019 looks like more of the same.
The mayor’s office had laid the groundwork for those increases by claiming that phenomenal growth in the ride- sharing industry has cost the city and the CTA more than $ 40 million in lost revenue from other sources.
Why, then, would the mayor let Uber and Lyft off the hook by proposing an increase that recoups less than half of those losses?
“We have negotiated, what I think is the right balance, given it’s built on a fee increase that was done last year,” the mayor said.
Emanuel bristled when asked whether 15 cents a ride is enough for companies making money hand over fist.
“I don’t know. I haven’t looked at ’ em,” he snapped.
Ald. John Arena ( 45th) accused Emanuel of “going easy” on Uber — again.
“What that industry has taken away from hard- working cab owners — they need to be a bigger participant in helping us balance our books,” Arena said.
Ald. Anthony Beale ( 9th), chairman of the City Council’s Transportation Committee, said he would continue to push for an additional 50 cents a ride on Uber and Lyft as well as an increase in the $ 5 fee tacked on to every pick- up and drop- off at O’Hare and Midway Airports, McCormick Place and Navy Pier.
Another point of contention was the dangerous precedent Emanuel has set by assuming more financial responsibility for the CTA and Chicago Public Schools.
“We basically established a tax- increment- financing surplus as routine within the city. There’s a question about how sustainable that is. At some point, we will not have that surplus to rely on,” said Civic Federation President Laurence Msall.
Ald. Gilbert Villegas ( 36th), chairman of the City Council’s Hispanic Caucus, plans to introduce an ordinance that would require City Council approval of the CPS and CTA budget.
“If we’re gonna be giving them money in perpetuity, now they fall under our umbrella,” Villegas said.
Emanuel said he is not prepared to give aldermen that oversight.
“I don’t think, given certain things that have saved the aldermen, they want all that responsibility,” the mayor said, referring to massive propertytax increases for teacher pensions approved by the appointed school board.
Noting that aldermen ratify mayoral appointments to CTA and school boards, Emanuel said, “We have a good tradition here, and we are gonna stay with that tradition.”
The mayor made no apologies for his decision to funnel revenues from the new ridehailing fee to the CTA.
“It’s a new revenue source away from a gas tax. It’s an alternative. And it allows the city of Chicago to continue to invest,” he said.
“I’m doing it because there’s not a capital bill by either Springfield or Washington, D. C. I’m not gonna put the future of the city on hold,” he said.
Budget Director Samantha Fields said that there will be “other reforms” to help the taxicab industry, “such as extending the life of the vehicle and other things they feel are important to maintain their livelihoods.”
The amusement tax restructuring has raised the ire of Chicago sports moguls.
They fear big- name artists will skip their venues to avoid Emanuel’s plan to bankroll an amusement tax waiver for neighborhood theaters and concert venues with fewer than 1,500 seats by raising the amusement tax on major concerts from 5 percent to 9 percent.
Again, a combative Emanuel made no apologies.
“I will guarantee you, they will continue to have performances there,” at the United Center, the mayor said.
The mayor was also on the defensive for his decision to invest $ 27.4 million in police reform without consulting Attorney General Lisa Madigan, with whom he is supposed to be negotiating a consent decree culminating in the appointment of a federal monitor to ride herd over the Chicago Police Department.
“We have Mr. [ Michael] Bromwich, the leading expert on police reform who is our consultant. We worked with him,” the mayor said.
‘‘ I WILL GUARANTEE YOU, THEY WILL CONTINUE TO HAVE PERFORMANCES [ AT THE UNITED CENTER].” MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL on his proposed tax on major concerts