May 20--Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday said the new City Council and his administration would hold off on considering how to raise money to plug massive budget and pension holes.
Before having those tough talks on which taxes and fees the city should raise, Emanuel said he wanted to wait to see what lawmakers in Springfield might to do to alleviate Chicago's budget woes, how a court will rule on a pension deal that covers two of the city's retirement funds and how his negotiations on funding the city's police and fire pensions shake out.
"I want those things to play out, to see where we are, to make sure we're in the best position," the mayor said.
As a result, it's likely to be several months before the city's budget picture comes into focus.
The first answer Emanuel is likely to get will come from Springfield, where lawmakers are trying to craft a state budget, fix their own $105 billion pension crater and consider ways to help Chicago address its $1 billion pension-driven budget shortfalls at City Hall and Chicago Public Schools.
Lawmakers could help Chicago by pushing off steep increases in required pension payments to police, fire and teachers retirement funds. Emanuel also wants a city-owned casino to help cover a $550 million increased payment the city must make into the police and fire pensions next year.
"We are in active negotiations with police and fire on an agreement as it relates to securing their pension ... but in a responsible way for the public," Emanuel said after Wednesday's City Council meeting. "And we're in active discussions on a casino as a funding source to shore up those pensions."
While the mayor has gone on the offensive, deploying his staff and allied lawmakers to press for the casino, Emanuel is playing defense in trying to prevent deep cuts in funding for the city in the state's budget. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner wants to cut Chicago's share of the state income tax by $135 million per year, which would further erode the city's financial condition.
"I know that we are having good conversations as it relates to the casino. I know there are active conversations on the budget, as it relates to not only the budget itself, but revenue," Emanuel said of the city's efforts at the Capitol. "I'm going to be out there pressing issues related to Chicago and its future and (make sure) Springfield does not make decisions at the expense of Chicago, because it's not a healthy Illinois without a healthy Chicago."
Lawmakers have until the end of the legislative session in May to strike final deals, but there have been plenty of hints that a stalemate between Democratic lawmakers and Rauner over a budget could drag into the summer.
It's unclear what timeline Emanuel has set to reach a deal in reforming the city's police and fire pensions, but both the unions and the mayor are unlikely to reach an agreement before waiting to see whether lawmakers grant the city a casino and whether they delay the city's payments into the retirement funds.
An Illinois Supreme Court decision this month on a state pension law determined that public employee pension benefits cannot be diminished once they have been granted. That decision has given the police and fire unions more leverage in their talks with Emanuel, since the mayor has sought concessions.
In other council action:
--A powerful alderman's controversial push to require most Chicago gas stations to offer fuel with higher levels of ethanol is still alive after the newly seated City Council on Wednesday exempted the measure from a routine housecleaning that wiped out most other pending legislation.
Ald. Edward Burke's proposal, which Emanuel opposes, will carry over to the new council term. The proposal, backed by big agriculture and some environmental groups but opposed by big oil and small business, would make Chicago the nation's first large city to require many of its gas stations to provide pumps for fuel known as E15, which contains up to 15 percent ethanol, alongside standard E10.
--After nearly 18 months, aldermen chose a onetime budget aide to former Gov. Pat Quinn to analyze big-ticket proposals coming out of the mayor's office.
The pick of Ben Winick led to a comic digression at Emanuel's post-council meeting news conference when a reporter asked why a budget analyst is needed when aldermen could conceivably analyze the mayor's financial proposals themselves.
"Wait, isn't it for a year-and-a-half you guys wanting it, and now you want to ask why we did it?" Emanuel asked.
The mayor then recited a joke he said is often told by rabbis about a kid who comes home from college to find his mother bought him a blue sweater and a green sweater.
"Kid comes downstairs wearing the blue sweater, his mother looks at him and goes 'What's wrong with the green sweater?' " Emanuel cracked. "It's kind of like heads you win, tails I lose."
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