CHICAGO URBAN DAILY
CHICAGO (CHICAGO URBAN DAILY)— Day two of the budget hearings turned into a showdown over $75 million — and who gets to decide what it means.
The money is the transfer fee the city collected when Stonepeak Partners closed its $2.53 billion purchase of the company that runs Chicago’s parking meters. The ordinance the City Council approved 46-3 on September 29 said that money would go to the pension funds, with the Council deciding how.
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s $17.6 billion budget for 2027 does send it to the pension funds — as part of the roughly $363 million supplemental pension payment the city was already planning to make. Aldermen say that is the trick: the pension funds get exactly what they were going to get anyway, and the meter cash frees up $75 million of general revenue for something else.
Finance Chair Pat Dowell, Ald. Scott Waguespack and Ald. Nicole Lee have called a special Council meeting for Monday to direct the $75 million into the pension funds as an extra 2026 payment, on top of the supplemental advance. If they prevail, the mayor’s budget is $75 million short.
Johnson, asked about it, said if the Council chooses “to put an additional $75 million on top of the supplemental payment,” that is its prerogative. But the fight is about more than one line item — it is about whether the Council will let the mayor count the same dollar twice.
The hearings also pressed the administration on its controversial borrowing for police misconduct settlements and the corporate head tax, both already under fire from aldermen who say the budget needs real cuts, not new debt.
The pension math behind the fight is stark. Chicago makes $2.85 billion in annual pension contributions, but actuaries say the city needs at least $3.35 billion a year to reach its goal of 90 percent funding.
Stay tuned to Chicago Urban Daily as the budget fight moves through Council.
Reported by Chicago Urban Daily News. Visit chicagourbandailynews.com for updates.
