4-Apr-17 – Though the city’s finances under Mayor Richard M. Daley were “atrocious,” the current vice mayor says property tax increases did not have to be so steep.

“I think a lot more could have been done to trim spending in the City of Chicago,” said 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly at a Town Hall meeting on Monday of Streeterville Organization of Active Residents.

Reilly says he outlined for Mayor Rahm Emanuel about $200 million in savings. “And I was ignored.”

Higher property taxes this year are expected to bring in an extra $376 million for the City of Chicago and Chicago Public Schools. Last year’s tax hike was $427 million. Combined with new water, sewer, and garbage taxes, a typical homeowner in Chicago will pay about $400 more in taxes this year.

Much of the increase was to pay pensions of city employees, particularly employees of Chicago Public Schools.

Reilly, who voted against raising property taxes, says pension reform is critical. He says the State of Illinois should not require taxpayers in Chicago to help pay pensions of teachers in school districts outside of the city.

“Downstaters don’t pay for our teacher pensions yet we pay for theirs. We don’t get to dictate how they make their spending decisions in their downstate school districts.”

Alderman’s taxes went up, too

When property in Cook County was reassessed in 2015, Reilly says the assessed value of his home went up 74 percent, which he says is typical for downtown Chicago.

“What that tells me is…that our real estate economy downtown is absolutely rebounded…from the global recession,” said Reilly. “New development was driving up property value down here, which is also…in a way, good news, but the bad news is it translates into a much higher property tax bill.”

Reilly also blamed city leadership prior to Mayor Emanuel for “unsustainable spending,” including raises given to mid-and-upper-level bureaucrats.

“No one talked about the fact they were rotten to the core for the two decades before Rahm Emanuel showed up, from a city financial perspective. The flowers looked pretty. The Bears were winning. The Cubs were not. But the bottom line is, no one looked at the finances. Well, we had to open up those books when we had to change administration and it was atrocious.”