THE LOOP — By taking his controversial plan to privatize the city’s 311 non-emergency call center off the table, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has checked off another box on his Doomsday budget itinerary by offering a manufactured sign of good faith.
The Doomsday itinerary, of course, is the tried-and-true method the mayor follows to “never let a good crisis go to waste.”
Chicagoans first saw Emanuel’s Doomsday itinerary in action in 2013 as the mayor closed the most schools in American history.
Emanuel proposed closing 330 schools and strategically whittled that number down to 50 schools.
Well, the boss is back at it again as Chicago teeters on the brink of financial disaster brought on by the city’s underfunded pension obligations.
So far, Emanuel has already checked a few things off his Doomsday to-do list:
• Identify a crisis. Check.
The mayor pointed out the steep property tax hike has everything to do with Chicago’s mandate to pay more than $500 million into underfunded city employee pensions.
• Proclaim THE END IS NEAR! Check.
In his budget address, the mayor laid out a worse-than-a-worst-case scenario: Lay off 2,500 police officers and 2,000 firefighters, shut down 48 fire stations, collect garbage twice a month and stop repairing pot holes, killing rats and erasing graffiti.
• Introduce a solution that asks for a considerably larger sacrifice than necessary. Check.
Emanuel added 311 privatization, a new garbage collection fee and a host of new taxes and fees, most notably a ride share tax that gives companies such as Uber permission to compete with the cab industry at airports, Navy Pier and McCormick Place to his budget proposal.
• Establish a position of leadership by showing a willingness to compromise and a strong conviction to do what needs to be done to avert (and take advantage of) the looming crisis by repeating canned talking points.
Double Check.
Which brings us to box marked “offer a manufactured sign of good faith.”
While some news outlets called backing down on the 311-privatization proposal a “key concession” by the mayor, some people at City Hall believe the move was all part of Emanuel’s plan from the start.
Or as one City Hall source put it, “Everybody knew that was bull----. That was transparent.”
When asked about his reason for pulling the plug on his 311 proposal, Emanuel answered the question with a patented non-answer. A talking point served in a can.
“I believe in the principle of why I laid out what I’ve laid out,” the mayor told reporters. “There will be changes. But we will not change the goal of balancing the budget, eliminating the structural deficit, doing it in a fair, progressive way, meeting our obligations to police and fire pensions and also making critical investments in our children and public safety.”
Since the mayor won’t discuss the reasons why, let’s consider how the 311 proposal has played out so far.
First, Emanuel added the 311 outsourcing to his massive property tax and fee-hike budget proposal in the 11th hour, according to aldermen briefed on the mayor’s budget package before it was made public.
The 311-privatization plan aimed to save $1 million, according to the mayor’s initial proposal.
But when aldermen argued against it, Emanuel told some of them that the bigger picture was to avoid paying about $30 million in technology upgrades the city’s non-emergency call center needs.
And now, Emanuel has reportedly made the so-called “key concession” in an attempt to win support for his monumental property tax hike and various new fees, including hitting homeowners with a monthly garbage collection charge, without mentioning why he gave up on it or how he plans to make up the $1 million (or is it $30 million) in savings.
And here we are, entering a week of backroom wrangling between aldermen and the Emanuel administration in hope of reaching compromises — or cutting side deals on ward-specific projects — to get a majority of aldermen to vote for the mayor’s historic budget.
“The mayor is not done giving,” one alderman told me.
That might be true.
After all, Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) introduced a budget amendment Wednesday that would require Uber drivers to pay a fee to pick up passengers at the airports and city-controlled tourist hotspots.
And Emanuel has signaled a willingness to hold the line on proposed garbage fees at just under $10 until 2019 to give aldermen political cover through the next election cycle.
But make no mistake, when the clock runs out on the Doomsday budget vote the mayor hopes to have aldermen right where he wants them … with their backs against the wall.
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