Jul 30, 2008 6:46 pm US/Central
City Council Passes Furlough Plan To Avert Crisis
Mayor Daley's '09 Budget Will Likely Have Largest Shortfall In Recent Memory
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
The full City Council has approved a mandatory furlough plan, which will require thousands of city employees to take unpaid days off to avert a budget crisis.
It's a first for Mayor Richard M. Daley: Next year's budget is so far out of whack that he's delaying it for several weeks.
And the City Council is backing Daley's plan to force unpaid days off for thousands of city workers. But so far aldermen aren't affected, even despite the efforts of 2nd Ward Ald. Bob Fioretti.
"We too should follow in that path and give up three days out of our salaries," Fioretti said.
Despite Fioretti's surprising plea, his fellow aldermen did not offer to take a pay cut.
The reality is the tanking economy has blown a hole as large as $400 million in the city's proposed more than $5 billion budget.
Sources tell CBS 2 news the solutions being discussed include cutting some city services, hiking some fees and selling off city assets like Midway Airport.
"We need to find ways to tighten the belt of the city's budget," said 14th Ward Ald. Ed Burke.
The plan will require 2,000 non-union employees earning more than $75,000-a-year to take three unpaid days off by Dec. 31. One thousand non-union workers earning more than $55,000-a-year will take two furlough days.
The unpaid days off OK'd Wednesday will only save $3.5 million. Yet a job placement expert says that's a bitter pill for middle income workers to swallow.
"When situations like this come up it can make it hard even for someone making over $75,000 a year to make ends meet," said John Challenger of Challenger, Gray and Christmas.
The mayor was sick Wednesday with the flu; his budget director, Bennett Johnson, was left to explain the fiscal predicament.
"It is not a pretty picture. So we just need some more time to get the data to get the revenues in," Johnson said.
Johnson is in a tough spot. Daley on Monday said he won't raise property taxes. Yet he risks a revolt if he raises sales taxes. Johnson mentioned police and fire cuts in other cities. But it's hard to imagine City Council backing that here.
On Tuesday, Daley refused to talk turkey about layoffs. He first wants to hear what union leaders are willing to do voluntarily to help ease a city budget crisis he called the worst he's ever seen.
Facing a far smaller shortfall in 2002, the mayor asked union leaders to choose between five unpaid furlough days and deferred pay raises to erase a $115 million budget shortfall. When they refused, 517 of their members were laid off. Ten years earlier, Daley laid off 782 employees.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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