Mayor Rahm Emanuel unveils 2015 Chicago budget plan

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Mayor Rahm Emanuel presented his $8.9 billion budget plan to the Chicago City Council on Wednesday. It includes targeted tax increase and investments in kids, police officers and streets.

"With this budget, we will keep building a stronger foundation for the future," Emanuel said.

The mayor promised, once again, not to raise property, sales or gasoline taxes as he ticked off accomplishments during the budget proposal.

"It was an election year budget," Chicago Alderman Leslie Hairson, Ward 5, said.

However, the budget proposes raising taxes for downtown parking, luxury sports skyboxes at Chicago stadiums and companies who make purchases in the suburbs to avoid city taxes. None of that was mentioned in the mayor's address on Wednesday. Aldermen said they learned of it the day before.

"What we were given yesterday in briefings was kind of a gloss over. So, like most citizens out there, we don't know much," Alderman Scott Waguespack, 32nd Ward, said.

The city's biggest financial issue may be the looming debt to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in police and fire pensions. Emanuel acknowledged the issue, but did not offer a plan on how to pay it next year.

"The mayor deserves a lot of credit in this budget for coming up with a fairly conservative and reasonable plan to balance this budget. But it leaves off the question next year, how are we going to address the pensions? Where are we going to get that $500 million," Lawrence Msall, Civic Federation, said.

Chicago Alderman Bob Fioretti, Ward 2, is running for mayor next year.

"This mayor and his budget short-changes Chicago's long-term future," Fioretti said.

Chicago Alderman Roderick Sawyer said the mayor is putting off the tough choices now, but eventually will have to face reality in the form of a property tax increase.

"I know that's a tough sell to say during an election year, but I think we have to responsible to the citizens of all Chicago. We have to be honest with ourselves and say we have one of the lowest ax rates in the state of Illinois. No one likes to hear that, but that's true," Sawyer said.

Emanuel hopes the tax hike will bring in more than $31 million to help close an estimated $297 million budget gap.

The mayor plans to double the number of police officers trained on bikes by investing $2 million into an expanded program. He wants to spend $10 million on doubling year-round staffing to fix potholes and crumbling roads beat up by last year's harsh winter.

Emanuel also wants to spend another $33 million on neighborhood services, including four additional crews to remove graffiti, a 30-percent increase in crews dedicated to rodent control and 7,800 trees to be planted - 25 percent more than last year.

Also, the mayor stressed the importance of after school programs and summer jobs.

"The City of Chicago has the fastest growing central business district in America. That is a feather in our cap. But it is only one yardstick we measure ourselves by," Emanuel said. "Our ultimate measure is whether every resident in every neighborhood participates in that progress. We cannot allow our politics in this chamber to stand in the way of that goal. From Roseland to Rogers Park, from South Shore to Sauganash, from Austin to Albany Park, and from Woodlawn to Wildwood, we all are part of one great city. That great city can only move forward together - leaving no neighborhood, no family, and no child behind."

The mayor delivered his budget address on Wednesday at City Hall.