By Steve Rhodes
“Mayor Rahm Emanuel is targeting librarians, youth service coordinators, public health nurses, animal care aides and emergency call takers in his 2012 budget that appears headed for easy approval Wednesday,” the Tribune reports today.
“While the mayor has tried to focus attention on his plan to trim the ranks of senior and middle managers, front-line employees will bear the brunt of the cuts.”
And yet . . .
“Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s first city budget rewards a handful of top mayoral aides,” the Sun-Times reported last month.
“While the Chicago Police Department is closing three district stations and eliminating 1,252 police vacancies, Supt. Garry McCarthy’s chief of staff will get a nearly ten percent bump – to $185,004.
“The Police Department’s new director of news affairs will be paid $112,008 a year, nearly 9.5 percent more.
“Transportation Commissioner Gabe Klein gets a nearly eight percent pay raise – to $169,500 . . .
“General Services Commissioner David Reynolds gets a nearly 12 percent bump from his predecessor – from $140,364 to $157,092 . . .
“Matt Hynes, director of the Mayor’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, is in line for a nearly seven percent raise – from $158,364 to $168,996.
“An administrative secretary in the mayor’s office gets a 22 percent pay raise – to $90,000. Four assistants to the mayor would be in line for increases ranging from 14 percent to 41 percent – one earning as much as $162,492.
“There are also pay hikes for two deputy chiefs of staff. The budget director and chief financial officer also get a boost, both receiving $169,992-a-year.”
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You might call Rahm’s budget a redistribution of wealth. But that would be engaging in class war.
Apartment Department
“Tough economic times are forcing more Cook County residents to search for affordable apartments, but the dwindling supply is only expected to get worse,” the Tribune reports.
“The number of renters who needed affordable housing in 2009 totaled almost 483,000, yet less than 303,000 rental units were considered affordable, meaning nearly two in five renters who needed those units didn’t find it.
“Looking forward, by 2020 another 44,000 affordable apartments will be needed because of various demographic and economic changes shaping the market, according to a report that DePaul University’s Institute for Housing Studies is expected to release Tuesday.
“DePaul’s report, based on the most recent census data and foreclosure and rent statistics, paints a potentially dire situation for low- and moderate-income renters, and not just because foreclosures have wreaked havoc in some neighborhoods. Rather, the bigger issue is increasing rents at a time when household incomes are decreasing.”
Well, not everyone’s household income is decreasing. For example, the Chicago Police Department’s new director of news affairs will make $112,008 a year under Mayor Rahm’s budget – 9.5 percent more than the old director of news affairs.
Stand Up, Chicago
Reports From The Front: Car Wash Workers, People’s Budget Assembly, Responsible Wealth.
Madigan’s McCormick Mess
The funny thing about dictators is that they can’t act alone. Michael Madigan, for example, needs his cowardly allies to have his back. For example:
“State Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, a Chicago Democrat who is chairman of the rules committee, can’t say why none of the bills reached the House floor for a vote. ‘I don’t have a good explanation,’ she tells Crain’s.”
Do you have a bad one?
Seasonal Aisle
“Drugstore operator Walgreen Co. spend $700,000 lobbying the federal government in the third quarter, more than twice what it spent a year ago,” AP reports.
“The largest U.S. drugstore chain said its lobbying interests included payments for home health care services, the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit, the military’s Tricare health program, and debit card regulations. The Deerfield company said it lobbied Congress and the Departments of Defense and Health and Human Services.”
Rate Bait
I wonder where the local news shops would rank if they were included in this survey.
Paul McCartney Is A Huge Bears Fan!
Bears On The Run!
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The Beachwood Tip Line: What’s your policy?
Posted on November 15, 2011