More Graffiti Removal, Fewer Rodents in Proposed Chicago Budget

Alaina Tucker and her neighbors want more rat control and trash pick up in public areas next year. And with the proposed 2013 Chicago budget, it looks like that may happen.

Tucker attended a town hall meeting Ward 47 Ald. Ameya Pawar hosted on the budget Tuesday at Chase Park Auditorium. She’s the representative of Center 47, a neighborhood group in the ward that covers from Lincoln to Ravenswood and Montrose to Irving Park Road.

“We were very concerned about rat control, the tree trimming schedule, graffiti schedule and more aggressive public trash pick-up,” she said.

Pawar presented the budget and answered questions for about 12 residents at the meeting.

He said the proposed budget increases services for graffiti removal, tree trimming and rodent abatement in 2013.

The additional services are a result of savings from switching to a grid trash system in June, he said. Chicago used to collect trash by ward.

When the city moved to a grid system, easier routes and uniform days created more than $60 million in savings.

“Wards are political boundaries… it doesn’t make sense to pick up garbage based on those boundaries, it’s garbage,” Pawar said.

But with the grid system came a few complications, most of which Pawar said have been worked out.

Public trash bins in commercial areas, particularly along Lincoln and Montrose, were overflowing, Tucker said.

As a solution, Pawar asked businesses and the public to help out with overflowing trash, and hopes to have the issue fully resolved by spring.

The extra services come at no cost to residents, as Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s budget proposes no new increases in fees, fines or taxes.

The only increases will be those that were passed in last year’s budget, such as a water rate increase, Pawar said.

Emanuel presented his proposal for the 2013 budget on Oct. 10, which totals $8.3 billion, according to a city press release. 

Chicago aldermen will have committee hearings this week and next and negotiate with the mayor before going to final passage in mid-November. Pawar is hosting one more town hall meeting Oct. 30 at Luther Memorial Church at Campbell and Wilson avenues.

Although the 2013 budget is balanced, Pawar called it, “the calm before the storm.”

The storm comes from the rising cost of the state’s unfunded pension systems, something that can only be fixed in the state legislature.

“The city council has no authority to do anything until the state legislature takes action,” Pawar said.

The pension system has serious structural flaws, Pawar said, including an aging workforce, fewer new hires and a system that’s drawing out more than it’s paying in.

Other budget facts presented by Ald. Pawar:

Expense Savings:

• $67 million in reduced spending: the city went through every department but police and fire and eliminated unfilled positions that were funded in the budget
• $60 million in savings from switching to the grid garbage system; more savings to come next year with further implementation
• $70 million in savings because of a city employee wellness program

Increased Revenues:

• $42 million increase due to real estate taxes- the largest since the market crashed in 2008
• $40 million in savings by refinancing the city’s debt