CITY BUDGET

I grew up in a modest home on my dad's union telephone company salary and my mom's union teacher salary. They were strict about money and always reminded me that once I earned my own, I'd understand how hard it was to come by. They were right.

But that lesson isn’t being embodied at City Hall. Instead of stretching dollars the way any working family has to, City Hall treats Chicagoans who are already struggling to afford housing, groceries, childcare and healthcare like an endless ATM by slapping them with ever-growing taxes, fees and fines. Wasting working people’s money isn't progressive.

Every dollar wasted on bureaucracy, mismanagement, duplication and outdated systems is a dollar city government is diverting from affordable housing, community safety, better schools, reliable transit, and reliable city services. So I’ll reinvent City Hall, grow our city’s housing stock, and finally tackle the long-term structural challenges that have held Chicago back, because the truth is: the Chicagoans who would suffer the most from the city becoming insolvent are the ones who can't afford to leave.

Many of the policies outlined below are the exact same ones I fought for on the County Board in 2003. I can’t help but wonder where we’d be now if not only the county, but the city had embraced these reforms back then.

  • Reform before revenue. Before asking Chicagoans for another dollar, we’ll implement the hundreds of millions of dollars in efficiencies already identified by the EY report that the current administration paid to commission, then ignored. That report found between $530 million and $1.3 billion in recurring annual savings from reforms that this administration refused because they didn’t fit its political narrative.

  • Modernize City Hall. Consolidate human resources, information technology, legal services, procurement, fleet management, and other back-office functions that are unnecessarily duplicated across departments so government operates as one city instead of dozens of separate agencies, delivering you faster and better services.

  • Protect workers while reducing bureaucracy. When technology, consolidation, or efficiency reduces the need for a position, we’ll prioritize retraining employees for comparable jobs elsewhere in city government through a new City Career Transition Program, preserving institutional knowledge and minimizing layoffs wherever possible.

  • Make every manager manage. Some city managers supervise only three employees even though best practices recommend six to eight. we’ll reduce unnecessary layers of management so frontline employees spend less time navigating bureaucracy and more time serving Chicagoans.

  • Fast-track hiring when there is a vacancy, as New York Mayor Mamdani has done, by modernizing and reforming OMB’s position control function, which currently determines whether departments can even post open positions; and by tracking and enforcing HR hiring timelines; and reevaluating outdated and rigid criteria for certain jobs. These reforms would radically accelerate the city’s hiring pipelines, ensuring that Chicago isn’t left with vacancies in critical roles and that we continue to attract top talent to public service.

  • Make growth our budget strategy. Chicago cannot cut or tax its way out of a structural deficit. Building 50,000 new homes, attracting new residents, growing our workforce, and expanding our tax base will generate long-term revenue while creating jobs, supporting neighborhood businesses, increasing CTA ridership, and strengthening our case for additional state and federal infrastructure investment.

  • Use public assets better. Consolidate office space, modernize the city's 15,000-vehicle fleet, activate vacant city-owned land and underused buildings for housing or community centers, and ensure taxpayers receive fair value from more than 500 facilities and 10,400 vacant parcels instead of letting valuable public assets sit underutilized.

  • Make government work together. Eliminate duplication between the City, Chicago Public Schools, the Park District, sister agencies, Cook County, and the State wherever possible, from joint purchasing and technology to shared administrative services. Government should function like one team, not competing bureaucracies.

  • Fix the permit process because that isn’t just housing policy, it’s also budget policy. Every month a housing project sits waiting for approval is another month Chicago loses good union jobs, the chance to lower rents, increase neighborhood business activity, and collect new property tax revenue. We’ll reduce permitting from years to months by setting firm deadlines, using technology, and holding departments accountable for results.

  • Confront the pension challenge honestly. Pension and debt costs already consume roughly 40% of Chicago's budget, crowding out investments in public safety, housing, transit, schools, parks, and neighborhood services. We’ll treat advance pension payments as non-negotiable and make additional contributions whenever possible, work to prevent any more unfunded mandates from Springfield, and bring employees, retirees, taxpayers, labor, and fiscal experts together to develop collaborative long-term solutions so we can ensure that benefits remain sustainable for newer and future generations of workers.

  • Budget for the long term. Stop relying on one-time fixes, borrowing for operating expenses, and delaying difficult decisions. Every budget should strengthen Chicago's long-term financial position instead of pushing today's bills onto tomorrow's citizens.

  • Measure success by results. Publish regular public reports tracking cost savings, debt reduction, pension funding, housing production, population growth, and service delivery so hard-working Chicagoans can see exactly where their money is going and how well their government is keeping its sacred oath of service.