If they pull a knife, you pull a gun. Film lovers and Chicago political insiders know the rest of the story: In “The Untouchables,” Bureau of Prohibition agent Eliot Ness turns to the incorruptible Irish cop Jimmy Malone for help in arresting mobster Al Capone. Along the way, Malone gives Ness an education in the Chicago Way of politics and crime.
Fast forward some 80 years from the time of Capone’s arrest, and a new Chicago Way is in the spotlight. No longer is Chicago politics associated with graft, corruption and crime but strong, ethical leadership. Rahm Emanuel has proposed a balanced budget by judiciously mixing cuts and revenue increases to close the city’s $636 million shortfall.
At the start of his first term, Emanuel is on the verge of succeeding where mayors, governors and the president have failed. He’s forged a consensus to balance the budget without gutting services or vastly increasing taxes. And the plan actually checks out, as the watchdog Civic Service reports. Even more impressive for a Chicago mayor, he’s done it without privatizing gimmicks or raiding the city’s rainy day fund.
His proposal is an impressive compromise: $417 million of the budget gap is closed through cuts with the final $238 million coming from increased revenue. The cuts come from switching to a grid system of trash collection, reducing mid-level bureaucracy and closing three police stations. Revenue is added through a $2 congestion fee, increased vehicle sticker costs for cars weighing in over 4,000 pounds and higher water and sewage bills, among other changes.
Emanuel took a balanced approach to balancing the budget, and Washington should take note. Chicago’s $6.3 billion budget is minuscule compared to the $1.5 trillion figure the super committee is charged with cutting from the federal deficit over the next ten years. However, to succeed, the super committee needs to forge a Chicago-style compromise. Their plan cannot simply rely only on new tax increases or service cuts, but mix the two while touching on bipartisan points such as simplifying the tax code.
As his former boss hopes to influence a budget agreement, Emanuel needs to move into the wider problems plaguing Chicago starting with mass transit, the public school system and gang violence. Both the Chicago Transit Authority and Chicago Public Schools system face massive budget shortfalls-$277 million for the CTA and $712 million for CPS.
Beyond budgetary issues, both organizations are deeply flawed. The CPS fails to adequately educate students. Only 7.9 percent of juniors are college-ready and 13,000 drop out yearly. The CTA is decimated by absenteeism, inadequate route coverage and aging fleets. Meanwhile, there were 435 homicides in 2010, a drop from 2009 but still too high. Three pillars of Chicago’s growth – public transit, education and safety – are eroded to the point of near collapse.
Public transportation needs to be the springboard for revitalization. It’s the natural link between job growth and community development. In Hong Kong, the public transit authority is profitable. By developing real estate surrounding its holdings, it supports ridership and improves local economies. As the CTA expands south, it should emulate that example while linking prospective employees to city jobs. But for mass transit to have an uplifting economic effect beyond minimum wage jobs, education needs to become a priority, and violence needs to be quashed. A workable solution will realize the interconnectedness of the issues and go beyond the norm.
Contrary to Washington’s experience, budgets exist to empower change and progress, not partisan fighting. Having won the budget battle, it’s time to put the new Chicago Way to the test and develop a roadmap for the city’s future that goes beyond deficit and surplus. It’s time for Emanuel to lead the way.
Scott Rosenfield is a Medill junior.
He can be reached at [email protected].
