Well, everyone knows the pension stuff is messed up and has been for awhile. Progress is at least some progress nonetheless as long as it's not at the expensive of residents anymore IMO.
From a city perspective...the shortfall is $561M lower than expected:
https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-ha...federal-relief
Quote:
Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s pre-election budget includes a revised, $305.7 million shortfall — $561 million below earlier estimates — thanks to held-over federal relief funds and an improving economy, top mayoral aides said Wednesday.
..
On the glass-half-full side of the equation is the fact that the city expects to close the books on 2021 with revenues $250 million higher than anticipated.
The primary drivers are:
• A booming real estate market driven by record-low interest rates (until recent hikes engineered by the Federal Reserve). The result is transaction and lease taxes $201.3 million over budget estimates.
• An improving labor market that has income tax receipts $57.5 million higher than anticipated.
..
Even so, Chicago’s economic outlook is not nearly as rosy as the portrait Lightfoot painted during a recent speech to the City Club of Chicago, in which she attempted to lay the groundwork for her re-election campaign.
Transportation taxes are $53 million below budgeted levels, in part because a huge chunk of the downtown workforce has continued to work remotely at least a few days-a-week.
Although hotel tax revenues have “begun to recover,” they’re still “not fully recovered to pre-pandemic” levels, according to Chief Financial Officer Jennie Huang Bennett.
..
“What we’re seeing is people going out and spending more money — not because they’re dining out more, but because it’s more expensive. That concerns me,” Tunney said.
“That’s inflation, which should help — unless it’s out of control.”
|
Inflation is definitely a factor here but hopefully any upcoming blow won't be as bad due to the fact that Chicago and its area's inflation rate was a bit lower than a lot of other areas. Still high but perhaps won't end up as bad as some areas that have a lot more insane inflation. We're going to see what happens in the next few months with all of this.