Budget director: City property tax hike plan not enough

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Mayor Rahm Emanuel's proposed $543 million property tax hike may not be enough to resolve all of Chicago's unfunded pension debt, the city's budget director told alderman on Monday.

"We're going to need Plan B," said Alexandra Holt, the city's budget director. "We're going to have to come up with some sort of alternative."

The $543 million annual increase that is part of Emanuel's plan - phased in during the next four years -- would shore up only police and firefighter pensions, Holt said. The separate retirement system for municipal workers and laborers would remain billions underwater.

"If we bite this bullet are we going to asked to bite yet another one next year," said Ald. Joe Moore (49th Ward).

The alderman are spending the next five weeks reviewing the mayor's proposed budget. The process started with hearing from Holt.

"I think there's a little bit of tension here based on what you've seen with some aldermen saying, 'Hey, what's coming down the pike?" said Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd Ward).

And there's continued tension surrounding the mayor's plan to save $1 million a year by selling Chicago's 311 center to a private operator.

Last Thursday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said that upgrading and modernizing the center would require another $40 million to $50 million in "new capital that we as a city do not have."

"I don't think we should privatize 311 at all," said Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th Ward). "We should make that investment over some years."

Sawyer said he worries about how a private 311 center would make money.

"The only way I can see it being monetized is that they sell the information," Sawyer said. "And the information is us."

City officials said 311 answers over three million non-emergency calls a year. AFSCME 31, the union that represents most of its 75 workers, is strongly opposed to privatization:

"Public services should remain in the public's hands in control of the people," said Anders Lindall, AFSCME 31 spokesman.