Start calling and writing city hall - this is crazy...
Ward projects in trouble if money can’t be found for program
Last Modified: Jun 5, 2011 02:19AM
A $66 million-a-year program that allows Chicago aldermen to choose from a menu of neighborhood improvements just might be in jeopardy as Mayor Rahm Emanuel grapples with the city’s $1.2 million-a-year structural deficit.
Budget Director Alex Holt sent shock waves through the City Council this week when she told aldermen during closed-door briefings with department heads that “no funding source” has yet been identified to bankroll next year’s “aldermanic menu program.”
The treasured program allocates $1.32 million yearly to each of the city’s 50 wards to spend on infrastructure repairs of the local alderman’s choosing. The smorgasbord includes everything from street, sidewalk and alley repairs to new street lights, speed bumps and surveillance cameras.
Now, aldermen angered by a new round of city price hikes for menu items have to worry about whether the program will survive at all.
Ald. Danny Solis (25th), the powerful chairman of the City Council’s Zoning Committee, urged Emanuel to look elsewhere.
“It’s wrong for the menu program to be perceived as a slush-fund for aldermen. You’re not shortchanging aldermen [if you eliminate it]. You’re shortchanging our constituents,” Solis said Friday. “It’s not like paying for a clerk or a secretary. Aldermen depend on that money to get things done in their wards when they can’t depend on city revenue to do it.”
Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd) said his constituents would be “outraged” if the menu program bit the dust.
“They’ve been waiting a long time — in some cases years — to get streets repaved because we don’t have enough money every year. Filling potholes just won’t work anymore. A lot of streets are completely torn up. They look like the lunar surface,” he said.
Peter Scales, a spokesman for the city’s Office of Budget and Management, said Holt assured aldermen during the private meeting that the 2011 menu program would continue.
But when talk turned to the city’s “long-term financial planning,” Scales quoted Holt as saying the Emanuel administration was “starting to look at the funding sources and scope of the capital program for 2012, which includes the menu program. She added, however, that the city had not yet determined those details as it is very early in that process.”
The Chicago Sun-Times reported last year that 13 aldermen had left at least $500,000 of their $1.32 million-a-year allotment on the table and that four closed the books on 2009 with more than $1 million unspent. Nine others failed to use between $250,000 and $500,000, records showed.
Unspent money stays in an alderman’s account for future use.
At the time, now retired Ald. Helen Shiller (46th) said she didn’t spend $1.15 million because “menus came out late” and because she is deliberate.
“I can spend the money. That’s not the issue. The issue is I like to do it in a comprehensive manner,” she said then.
Waguespack accused the Chicago Department of Transportation of “falling behind,” leaving $711,623 in his account.
City Hall subsequently acknowledged that the 2009 menu program got off to a late start after the $2.5 billion privatization of Midway Airport collapsed for lack of financing.
Proceeds from the 99-year deal were supposed to bankroll the capital program. A replacement bond issue was not approved until June of that year.
Copyright © 2011 — Sun-Times Media, LLC
You ask: "Can you believe this?" Well, I can. Not only can I believe it, I expected it. I frankly find your naivete breathtaking.
ReplyDeleteThere is NO money available to continue as we have previously. The source for governmental expenditures is taxes, plain and simple. Property taxes, sales taxes, income taxes, road tolls, airport taxes, usage fees, city stickers, etc, etc. With this recession and the housing crash, tax revenues of every form are down. Many of your readers howled against an increase in the city stickers a few weeks ago on this blog. Well, where do you think the money source is for ward projects. Do you seriously think the 4st ward's roads are worse than any other ward's? We all knew that Rahm was going to balance the budget. How did you think that was going to happen - by cuts of course. You can instruct your readers to call and write city hall until the cows come home. There simply is NO MONEY to do all that you want, until a NEW source is found (casino) or unless an OLD source is increased (higher taxes). You would complain even more if the city undertook to borrow money (and thus pay interest on those loans) in order to perform road works. I sure would.
To 12:57pm
ReplyDeleteI disagree.
1. We need to empower the inspector general to do more to end no-bid contracts, waste, unnecessary overtime, corruption, etc.... Please read the Inspector General's reports.
2. We need to include everyone in our tax base, including corporations who currently get tax breaks and not for profits who receive free water and other city services.
3. We need to restructure and/or abolish TIF funds. We need to stop funding corporate projects, Grossinger car dealership on North Ave (an example), etc... TIF money is SURPLUS money that needs to be spent on education and public safety. TIF funds have been abused and inappropriately handed to corps for far to long.
So, 12:57pm before you spout off about taxes, blah, blah, blah..do your research. And I must say, you don't sound much like a taxpayer - you sound like a politician/former politician...
Rahm said he would balance the budget, but he never said he would end basic infastructure services...via the alderman's menu budget to fix streets, street lighting, and other vital ward projects. He knows the taxpayers want to see improvements in their wards And, I agree, 12:57pm doesn't sound like a taxpayer.
ReplyDeleteA few thoughts...
ReplyDeleteAs a taxpayer, I do believe basic city services including infastructure repair - street, curbs, sidewalks, etc are what I pay property taxes for. To allow the ward to fall into disrepair is inexcusable.
I do believe we need an immediate forensic audit with the results published for all to see before anyone decides to discontinue the alderman's menu budget. A forensic audit is a critical first step before cutting the ward's infastructure budget.
Additionally, TIF funds were suppose to be used for community development. Would make no sense to spend TIF dollars on elaborate corporate development projects and let the city's infastructure fall apart. Should TIF funds be used for infastructure? Why not? In my opinion, TIF funds should be used to fill in gaps in the CPS and CPD budgets so our city will attract new residents with a good school system and special attention to public safety. To me investing in infastructure, CPS & CPD, IS community development and an economic engine in itself.
I do think taxpayers need to challenge decisions like this. Discontinuing the menu budget is a MISTAKE.
Furthermore, I strongly believe that the alderman's menu budget should be spent via a participatory governance model. That's right, with ward residents participating and voting on specific projects to be done in the ward.
In the 41st, the residents may want to leave the menu budget/money to the discretion of Alderman - fine, as long as taxpayers and residents, here, have the opportunity to participate in the process and make that decision.
And 12:57, as for making you breathless, I'm flattered, but taxpayers need to constantly question decisions and offer their opinions so that politicians can make correct choices for the ward. If we stay quiet and say nothing to our elected officials about decisions we think are not in our best interest, we have only ourselves to blame in the end.
Even if Rahm decides to centralize certain services, such as street paving and pot hole repair... Each ward has special capital project needs. For the 41st - could be the bike path that has been needed to decades.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of centralizing services & taking away some responsibilites from the alderman (in an effort to downsize the city council to 25 instead of 50), but the unique character of each ward is important too. Some capital projects should be determined by the alderman with the input of constituents.
yeah, what happened to the "forensic audit" - heard that during the mayoral debates - not much since.
ReplyDeleteThe 41st isn't the only ward with infastructure needs, but it is the largest ward with the most square miles and streets to keep maintained. We need double the allotment money, not less
ReplyDeleteSo, only the mayor would control where all the money goes and what projects get done? Sounds like a dictatorship. I like the participitory governance process idea. It isn't much local control of a very few dollars, but at least it sounds democratic.
ReplyDeleteI saw the reference made to the Grossinger Auto Dealership receiving TIF funds. Ward residents were enraged about their money going to a corporate entity.
ReplyDeleteCommunity residents wanted that money to directly benefit the community and not a corporation, so they decided to stage a public protest. And guess what? It was reported that protesters were arrested! They were decent taxpaying citizens protesting how their money was to be spent and they were hauled of to jail.
Meanwhile, flashmobs of gangbangers beat, rob and terrorize throughout the city (esp beaches, goldcoast, michigan ave)...and no one is arrested!?
Rahm is trying to take away any local power and money the alderman have, and with that he takes away any local say in how our tax money is spent. Everything will be centralized. I'm just wondering how capital projects will be addressed across the city fairly?
ReplyDeleteHe is trying to create a fiefdom. He will be lord and we are all the little taxpayer serfs.
If anyone would like to read about participitory budgeting, it has been piloted successfully in the 49th ward. You can go to http://participatorybudgeting49.wordpress.com
ReplyDeleteor you can check out the 49th Wards extensive website.
Some of the highest taxes are paid in this ward - we deserve good streets and infrastructure
ReplyDeleteIf 41st ward is the largest ward in the city with most surface space and streets, we need more money to maintain the ward, not less!
ReplyDeleteThere's a new king in town...
ReplyDeleteThis is insane. I hope Alderman O'Connor and the rest of the City COuncil put their foot down about this. Capital projects to be done within the Ward need to be determined by the most local elected official who knows the turf & players. And, we need to be involved in those decisions, too, and a mechanism needs to be set up so that our voice matters.
ReplyDeleteAnd so the train wreck begins...
ReplyDelete12:57 - what are you thinking? Do you read the papers? Top 4 CHA administrators used city credit cards for lavish dinners, parties, gifts, to pay red light tickets - lots of misuse of taxpayer money. And we are suppose to give up the pittance of money that comes directly to the ward before there is an audit?
ReplyDeleteWaste, criminal misuse and corruption must absolutely be addressed first before cutting ward infastructure money.
Rham will do what he wants. He bought enough Aldrman including the 41st. Don't cry when more of your money goes to the South and west side. You voted for Rahm's puppet.
ReplyDeleteTo 9:31: Do you mean the South and west side of the 41st Ward?
ReplyDeleteAt today's city council meeting Ms. Holt, City Budget Director, announced that no changes will happen with the Alderman's Menu Program. Alderman Beale asked her directly about the fate of the program.
ReplyDeleteTo 3:44 P.M. Only in dream land would 9:31 A.M have meant the south and west side of the 41st. The great citizens of 41 are the workers who pay a greater and greater share of their hard earned money for the free loaders. We are getting what we deserve for electing a bunch of liberals (who have no problem spending our money) at every level of government in this state.
ReplyDeleteThe alderman should call the mayor at 2:00 in the morning like she promised she would
ReplyDelete