Budget outlines Rahm’s campaign themes
Mayor Rahm Emanuel took exception Wednesday to the characterization of his 2015 spending blueprint as an “election- year budget,” especially if that implies he is putting off tough decisions until after the voting.
I was going to say Emanuel bristled, but that wouldn’t be accurate.
The mayor seems to be trying harder these days to keep his bristles in the prone position— perhaps in recognition that a style honed in Washington is part of what got him into trouble with voters here.
Rather, it was a very measured Emanuel who told the Chicago Sun- Times Editorial Board: “It’s not an election- year budget if you’re reforming pensions. It’s different than any other budget that has ever been sent to the City Council.”
Still, this is Emanuel’s last budget before he runs for re- election in a few months, and his official unveiling of it to the City Council came across very much like a preview of his forthcoming campaign.
In the lexicon of politics, the mayor’s people would say “he has a good story to tell” about why he deserves re- election. And what better time to start telling it than his budget speech, even if there is no longer a Karen Lewis looming in the race to make the coming months more of a challenge.
But if campaign theme No. 1 is that Emanuel inherited a mess and “made the tough choices” to put the city back on the right track, then it’s a little incongruous that the mayor’s budget address sidestepped the toughest financial issue facing him right now— namely how he will solve a lurking $ 550 million payment required next year to shore up the police and fire pension funds.
As the mayor points out, this is the first city budget to reflect savings that Emanuel expects from a bill he pushed through the Legislature last year. Of course, everyone is still waiting on a ruling from the Illinois Supreme Court to learn whether those changes to some city workers’ pensions will stand up.
The need for guidance fromthe courts also provides a convenient ( and somewhat valid) explanation for Emanuel’s omission of what he will do about police and fire pensions.
Until the courts rule, Emanuel says, the police and firefighters union have no interest in negotiating. The mayor has always taken the position that benefit concessions must be a part of any deal that puts more taxpayer money into shoring up the pension funds. Even then, it will require more legislative action.
Another Emanuel re- election theme will be that he has not raised property, sales or gas taxes, which is true as long as you don’t count the property tax hikes for Chicago Public Schools.
He refused to be pinned down Wednesday on whether he will need to raise property taxes to pay for the police and fire pensions — or to close a funding commitment for the laborers and municipal employees pensions that were the subject of the earlier legislation.
Most Chicago aldermen seemed only too happy to defer the pension problem— and any tax increase— until after the elections, even though that’s the approach that caused so much trouble during the Daley years.
That strategy has usually worked out politically for them in the past, but as I looked out over the faces of the 50 aldermen, many of whom I have watched grow old in that chamber, I couldn’t help but wonder how
The mayor made it clear he will return to the theme of casting himself as a reformer.
many will still be here a year from now.
Emanuel also made it clear that he will return to the theme of casting himself as a reformer who freed up city resources by “putting performance ahead of politics” and who brought city government “into a new day where what you know is more important than who you know.” You can also expect a lot of emphasis on education and other initiatives for young people: his commitment to funding early childhood education, after school and summer jobs programs, and improvements to the community college system.
While waiting for the mayor to take the podium before his speech, one alderman put the over- and- under on Emanuel references to “children” or “youth” at 29 ½ .
I was one of the few to take the under. The alderman counted 28 such mentions in the speech that followed.
When we find out who is running for mayor, I’ll have to ask him to handicap the field.