With Chicago aldermen facing reelection in five months and inflation high, two more of them are forgoing raises that would have hiked their pay by nearly 10%.
With Alds. Edward Burke, 14th, and Samantha Nugent, 39th, turning down the salary increase, that brings to 17 the number of City Council members who passing on the raises that, because they’re automatically tied to inflation, will be 9.6% next year.
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As of Sept. 2, 15 out of 50 aldermen had already turned down the raise for 2023: Daniel La Spata, 1st; Brian Hopkins, 2nd; Nicole Lee, 11th; Marty Quinn, 13th; Raymond Lopez, 15th; Matt O’Shea, 19th; Silvana Tabares, 23rd; Felix Cardona, 31st; Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 35th; Gilbert Villegas, 36th; Anthony Napolitano, 41st; Brendan Reilly, 42nd; Tom Tunney, 44th; Matt Martin, 47th; and Maria Hadden, 49th. Quinn, as of a year ago, was the lowest paid alderman; he accepted the raise for this year.
Tunney is among several sitting aldermen who have announced they won’t run for reelection next year. Lopez also is not seeking reelection, choosing instead to run for mayor against incumbent Lori Lightfoot. Two other council members — Roderick Sawyer, 6th, and Sophia King, 4th — are also choosing the mayor-or-nothing path, forgoing reelection bids to try to unseat Lightfoot. They are not on the list of aldermen turning down the raise.
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At least one other mayoral candidate has criticized city council members who are accepting the raises. Willie Wilson, a wealthy businessman and philanthropist known for cash and gas handouts, tweeted this week that “to accept this money in the middle of a recession where the majority of Chicagoans make much less is unacceptable and downright wrong. Return those raises to the city budget!”
The top pay for aldermen is expected to grow to $142,772 next year, when an increase of about $12,500 kicks in. No everyone on the council earns the same because of some forgoing past raises.
Seated aldermen who aren’t running next year but accepted the pay increase will receive their new pay until their terms end in May. However, Thursday’s deadline is not a hard one; council members can change their mind and decide to opt out of the raise throughout this year.
Meanwhile, Burke’s salary will remain at $120,408. Burke, 14th, the longest-serving alderman, is awaiting trial on sweeping federal racketeering charges and has not announced whether he will run for reelection. He has pleaded not guilty.
Burke has relied heavily on a deep well of campaign funds to pay his legal bills. The Tribune reported in January that he had spent more than $2.7 million on lawyers preparing his defense.
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Far South Side Ald. Carrie Austin, 34th, will see her salary go up to $142,772. Austin faces federal bribery charges. Austin, who has pleaded not guilty, is not seeking re-election next year, but will see the higher salary reflected on paychecks from January until she leaves office in May, as well as in larger pension payments after she steps down from the council.
City council pay has been tied to inflation since 2006, when aldermen voted to give themselves automatic raises based on the consumer price index. That saved them the politically unpopular task of regularly voting on their compensation. Individual alderman can exempt themselves from the annual raise, but if they do nothing, they get it.
But since that policy change, U.S. inflation has soared to levels not seen in 40 years.
Last year, only five aldermen turned down a 5.5% raise, which at the time was the highest in more than a decade as inflation was beginning to kick in. One big difference this year is that every council seat is up for election in early 2023, on Feb. 28.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot doesn’t get an automatic annual pay raise. In fact, the mayor’s salary of $216,210 has remained the same since 2006, when Richard M. Daley was in office.
