- Today is July 7, 2017. The annual Chicago financial report for 2016 was required by law to be published by June 30, 2017. Why did the city fail to meet the legal deadline again?
- This morning, July 7, I called your Department of Finance, and asked politely if the report has been published, and if so, if I could get a copy. The person who answered the phone said she didn’t know, and asked me to hold on. As I type this now, at 8:45 am, it has been over three minutes since I asked that question. Why is the phone line still dead?
- Was this year’s delay related to any motivation to wait until the budget / tax hike legislation passed in in Springfield? If so, can you please explain why, and why this would make sense given the report covers a fiscal year that ended over six months ago?
- When the report for 2016 finally does get “published,” will it include a letter of transmittal to the Citizens of the City of Chicago that is dated June 30, a backdating that has also occurred in recent years?
- Have advance copies of the report been distributed among legislative leaders in Springfield, or for that matter, anyone outside of City or State Government, including members of the media and other participants in financial markets?
- Can you please explain the chart below? It shows the difference between expenses and revenue for Chicago, Indianapolis, and Detroit from 2006-2015, with a period that includes the three years before your latest re-election, before which you claimed to have ‘balanced the city’s budget’ and made the government ‘smaller, smarter and simpler.’