PREPARE THE TAR AND FEATHERS

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OH BOY! Did you hear how the city of Chicago's budget sounds for next year? $520 Million in the hole. And you thought this year's $300 million budget gap was bad. Yikes. From the Sun-Times:

Even after wringing concessions from organized labor and drying up a "rainy day" fund created by privatizing parking meters, Chicago has a $519.7 million budget shortfall in 2010 that can only be filled with tax increases and spending cuts.

"There are no obvious sources of revenue that have not already been tapped," said Civic Federation President Laurence Msall.

"You have to make very severe and structural cuts in the city's operating budget. City government is going to be forced to re-invent itself in the way it delivers services and eliminates services not critical."

Msall was also quoted as saying:

"You have to look at personnel and personnel reductions because they represent 80 to 85 percent of the operating costs," said Laurence Msall, executive director of the Civic Federation.

Significant new taxes are unlikely, Msall added. "There is little that comes to mind that the city isn't already taxing or would be a new revenue source," he said.

Will Daley hold the line on taxes and fees? Are more layoffs coming? I'm not holding my breath. Daley cutting the fat from the city payroll is something I have to see to believe. I really won't be surprised to see Daley raising our taxes and fees. AGAIN. Seems pretty inevitable, right?

Chief Financial Officer Gene Saffold said nothing is ruled out. But, the mayor has instructed his staff to avoid a property tax increase at all costs.

"We understand people are hurting out there. ... The last thing we want to do ... is to further burden the citizens of Chicago. That's why that is a last resort -- the last thing that we'll turn to," he said.

Last resort? Do you believe him? I don't. Is he really going to cut $520 million from city employees alone? There is just no way that happens. He can call a tax increase a last resort if he wants. I'll just call it another day in Daleyland. After all, we've heard this before: Only One Choice - Raise Taxes.























photo by Johnye West

Some people think there's nothing left for Daley to tax. But not me. King Daley always finds a way to get more money out of his lowly subjects. So prepare your bank accounts for further assault in 2010.

I'm definitely on the look out for the city to step up its creative revenue game. Like parking tickets, towing, and red light cameras. Check out this great rant:

So beyond this, we got to talking about other ridiculous revenue streams in her area. She said she was always curious about why they did so much street sweeping in her area. One would think it would be expensive to always have the street sweeper out there, right? Nope. They tried to cut back on street sweeping, but it didn't work; THEY NEEDED THE REVENUE they get from giving out parking tickets.

Look, I never took an economics class in my life, but even I know that if your budget relies on FUCKING YOUR TAX-PAYING CITIZENS WITH BULLSHIT TICKETS to survive, something is FUCKING WRONG WITH YOUR BUDGET. No matter what social programs and bullshit spending you WANT the government to do, the money for it HAS TO COME FROM SOMEWHERE. If that somewhere is "cops give out more tickets for people who commit non-dangerous and piddly offenses", like parking in a street sweeping area or jaywalking or all this other bullshit that people insist is for "safety" but is really just a revenue stream, something has to change. I can't believe people don't see this. Especially the people in positions of power, people who get paid a significant amount to come up with a budget that makes sense and is feasible. When that budget includes something like "have a street sweeper out there (which, for what it's worth, is probably burning more fuel per mile than a Hummer does in a month, considering how slow they go) twice a week so we can ticket people who park on the street", no one looks at it and says "hey, maybe that's not the best way to get revenue?" NO ONE?!

Fuck is the system broken.