Wasteful Spending?

In Chicago? Seriously?

• In May of this year, the City of Chicago, facing a projected $1 billion budget shortfall over the next two years, paid “Big 4” accounting firm Ernst & Young (EY) $3.2 million to analyze the city’s spending and identify potential savings and efficiencies.

  A controversy arose when the mayor initially refused to release the report, instead preferring to “filter” it, in the words of Budget Director Annette Guzman. Aldermen were rightly suspicious of this approach, assuming that the mayor’s office would delete proposals that they did not agree with.  

  In the meantime, in mid-October, the mayor released his “Protecting the People” budget, which proposed $500 million in new taxes — including (most controversially) a head tax which he gave the Orwellian name of a “Community Safety Surcharge”, as well as a tax on cloud computing that would be the nation’s highest, and large new taxes on social media and ride sharing. In addition, the budget relies on one-time gimmicks such as the release of TIF funds.

  A few days later, the EY report was released. It proposed cost savings and revenue generation ranging from $530 million on the low end to $1.4 billion on the high end.  When asked why he is not implementing these ideas, the mayor variously has stated “it takes time,” “it’s a process,” and “I won’t negotiate my values.”

Plus, he has to make sure he locks in the $500 million in additional spending with the correctly aligned political operatives so that they kick back the appropriate amounts to "progressive" campaigns and CTU approved initiatives.

The Contrarian outlines the largest areas of waste, totaling between $400-and-$600 million dollars without breaking a sweat. The entire report has a potential $1.4 BILLION in taxpayer savings - far outpacing Conehead's budget shortfall.

But hey, don't forget to pay your increased property taxes soon!