It can be a little tiring trying to respond to public statements about city finances by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. In a way, he’s like the Energizer Bunny, who just keeps going, and going, and going. Trying to read his communications and point out miscommunication, well, it sometimes feels like trying to roll a boulder uphill, again and again and again, only to see it roll back downhill near the top every time.
In the years since Rahm Emanuel was first elected (in 2010), there has been a long series of claims how the city was moving into a new era, financially. Among them was the mantra that city government was getting “smaller, smarter, and simpler.” Meanwhile, the city government was actually getting bigger, more expensive, and more complicated, spending more and more money and incurring greater and greater debt.
Was it getting dumber? Maybe not, if smart people were behind the continued financial deterioration, reaping short-term fruits for themselves and their friends at the expense of the general welfare.
Yesterday, Rahm Emanuel delivered his annual “budget address,” presenting the annual budget to the Chicago City Council. Here are three brief things to point out:
- The “balanced budget.” Once again the Mayor claimed to balance the budget. This makes some sense, in one way, given the City claims that state law requires it to balance the budget. But in each of the Emanuel years, the city has spent at least a billion dollars more than it took in. Part of the problem can be blamed on budget accounting, but Emanuel has certainly been trying to paint a picture at odds with reality.
- “Righting the ship.” Emanuel has directly and indirectly blamed city financial practices under his predecessor for putting his administration behind the eight-ball, claiming progress in moving things in the right direction. But the growth rate in the city’s reported liabilities has actually doubled in the Emanuel years, compared the same interval in the last years of the Daley administration -- and despite a recovery from one of worst recessions in US history.
- “Back on solid ground.” In a Chicago Sun-Times story, the Mayor was quoted yesterday saying that “Five years ago, Chicago was on the financial brink … Today, Chicago is back on solid ground.” This seems difficult to square with the trend in the interest expense for the city, which has mushroomed under Emanuel. Last year, the city incurred over $850 million in interest expense alone, about double what it was incurring in the years before Emanuel was first elected – despite falling interest rates.
This a short reaction to the rhetoric yesterday. We’ll be taking a closer look at the budget and the work of the City Council in coming weeks.