Chicago Should Consider Furloughs, Higher Booze Tax, Watchdog Says
- Civic Federation lays out options for city to close shortfalls
- Chicago faces deficit of more than $1 billion through 2025
The fiscal challenges come to a head after years of pension underfunding and borrowing.
Photographer: Tannen Maury/AFP/Getty ImagesChicago should explore a range of options from furloughs to higher liquor taxes to levies on services to address the city’s “unsustainable” deficits, according to the Civic Federation, a watchdog group.
Without endorsing a specific approach, the federation, which monitors Chicago and Illinois finances, laid out some cost-cutting and revenue-raising approaches for Mayor Brandon Johnson and the city council to consider in a report released on Wednesday. Chicago faces a more than $1 billion budget gap through 2025 and years of shortfalls given its long-term pension and debt costs that have lingered for decades, the report said.