Daley's 2007 budget seems to balance dollars, sense

Daley's 2007 budget seems to balance dollar
October 16, 2006

If you liked how the City of Chicago spent its money this year, you'll probably like the way it plans to spend its money next year. The 2007 budget that Mayor Daley unveiled last week is much like this year's budget and doesn't call for any tax hikes or fee increases. The city will spend about $500 million more, but will pay for that with natural revenue growth. For many Chicagoans, knowing that their city tax bill won't go up may be all they care to know about the budget.
The $5.7 billion plan, however, also includes a few new programs that Daley will no doubt point to when he runs for re-election next year. Those include his plan to spend an extra $1 million to train and employ ex-cons. The idea is for ex-offenders to be hired to do odd jobs -- snow removal, de-icing, hydrant and curb painting, etc. -- for a few months to help them develop good work habits. The city would then help them find more permanent jobs. It's part of a worthwhile effort Daley started earlier this year to aid the 20,000 ex-offenders who return to Chicago each year.

Daley is also offering employers a break on the dreaded city head tax if they hire unemployed Chicagoans. That's a fine idea, but we wish the mayor would find a way to eliminate the tax entirely, as he once promised to do. While the tax is not massive -- $4 per worker per month for businesses with more than 50 workers -- Daley refuses to see how much it is resented by Chicago businesses and that it is a disincentive for businesses that want to set up shop here.

The mayor also boosted funding of the city inspector general's office to allow it to create an audit function. It's yet another in a series of worthy moves to bolster that office, all of which will help Daley mitigate the potential election fallout from several scandals that have hit his administration in recent years.

Daley wants to spend $1 million to install 100 more anti-crime cameras throughout the city. We don't share the "big brother" objections raised by a few -- the cameras after all view public streets. Like most Chicagoans, we see them as necessary crime-prevention tools. Still, putting one on every block -- as Daley wants to do before 2016, when he hopes Chicago will be hosting the Olympics -- may be going a bit overboard.

While at first glance we find little to fault in the mayor's spending plan, one area needs improvement. We wish it were easier to see how the city is spending the hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes it collects each year from its numerous tax increment financing districts. Groups like the Neighborhood Capital Budget Group have long asked why it is that TIF expenditures are not part of the regular budget process. It's a good question. Those are public funds, and the plans for spending them should be more transparent.