On Monday, Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez (33rd Ward) joined members of several community organizations at City Hall to propose new recommendations for addressing the city’s budget gap. Their plan calls for reallocating funds from vacant positions in the Chicago Police Department (CPD) to maintain funding for public health, violence prevention, youth jobs and basic income programs.
A new joint analysis from the Collaborative for Community Wellness, GoodKids MadCity, and the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression suggests that the $170 million allocated for over 1,000 vacant CPD positions in the proposed 2025 budget could be reallocated, meaning that Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration could avoid his proposed $68 million property tax increase.
Diego Morales, who chairs the 24th Ward Independent Political Organization, discussed the potential impact of property tax increases on neighborhoods like Pilsen, which is still experiencing rapid gentrification.
“It has seen the harshest increases in property tax increases in the entire city by a wide margin,” he said, referring to Pilsen. “On average, Pilsen homeowners saw their taxes go up 48% on their property taxes, and this has forced more displacement in a neighborhood that’s one of the epicenters of gentrification in the city of Chicago,” Morales said.
“This was not caused by some tax levy the city has been trying to put upon them. It’s caused by the inflation of property sale prices, including property values and taxes driven by the greed of wealthy landlords and corporate investors making big bucks gentrifying our neighborhood.”
In 2022, homeowners in Pilsen saw their property tax bills increase by 40 percent. Morales added that inefficiencies within the city budget are tied to the CPD because of its 1,000-plus job vacancies. Rodriguez Sanchez echoed those sentiments.
“We have a lot of vacancies that we are not going to fill,” Rodriguez Sanchez said, referring to vacant CPD positions. “What we’re seeing right now is those positions just sitting there are not providing safety for anybody. How about we use that money, those resources, for things that are available and can provide safety for people.”
During her remarks, she also pointed to GKMC’s peacekeepers program, which employed more than 100 young people this past summer for its pilot program on the South Side, as a program that needs to continue to see investment. She also mentioned the city’s basic income program and programs to help domestic violence survivors.
“We want to be progressive. We want to get the resources from where they are, and we want to make sure that people have what they need so that we can have a safe Chicago,” Rodriguez Sanchez said.
She added that cuts and not expanding funding to social safety net programs don’t align with progressivism. CPD’s proposed budget for 2025 is nearly $2.1 billion. It’s also the largest city department and makes up more than 30% of the city’s corporate fund, which funds city services and programs. To date, there are about 11,683 sworn officers in the CPD.
In addition to maintaining funding for programs like GKMC’s peacekeepers, the proposal also calls for preserving civilian roles within the Office of Constitutional Policing within CPD and increasing funding for the Chicago Department of Public Health to decrease the city’s life expectancy gap.
“We have thousands of youth in Chicago who are looking for jobs, opportunities and hope. The Peacebook Youth Program has proven to be one of the most effective tools in reducing community violence by providing young people with job training, internships and mentorships,” Reynia Torres, a member of GKMC and peacekeeper participant, said during today’s press conference. “By investing $22 million in this program, we can offer these young people the resources they need to build a future for themselves, strengthening our communities in the process.”
Below is a bulleted list of recommendations from community organizations:
- Preserving civilian roles within the Office of Constitutional Policing, Consent Decree with $4 million.
- $20 million for officer vacancies, which would preserve 135 officers.
- Maintain funding for MyChiMyFuture programming and GKMC’s Peacebook by adding 350 youth jobs with $22 million.
- Increase corporate funding for CDPS with $26 million.
- Preserve the Guaranteed Income Pilot program with $31.5 million.
The recommendations from the coalition of community organizations are being introduced as a budget amendment, with Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26th Ward) as the lead sponsor. At publishing time, the amendment isn’t available to view on the City Clerk’s website.
The Chicago City Council concluded budget hearings last week and must vote on and approve a balanced budget by Dec. 31.
“We know from experience that investing in our community members, giving opportunities and mentorship to our youth, providing secure and stable housing, and promoting a healthy environment are the things that keep us safe,” Morales said.
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