The editors of the Chicago Tribune via Yahoo urge corporate leaders to intercede with the mayor to negotiate a more sensible budget for the city:
What counts as “savings and efficiencies” in Mayor Brandon Johnson’s government?
In the 2026 budget the mayor presented last week, the two biggest items in that category were a $118 million reduction in how much the city planned to contribute to its woefully underfunded pension plans and a cap on how much overtime the Chicago Police Department could accrue.
That’s akin to an individual or household saying they’re tightening their belts by paying the minimum on their credit cards.
After explaining why we can’t expect any relief from the City Council, they continue:
So business community, if you are reading us, this is a dire moment.
Deals and investments that have been in the works in parts of the city still attractive to business are teetering, we hear. “Capital is fleeing,” one alderman tells us.
It’s a time now for high-profile corporate leaders to make clear to the mayor and council members what the stakes are. That could well mean that some household names threaten to close Chicago offices or reduce their city workforces. If that’s something these corporate leaders are contemplating behind closed doors — and we’ve little doubt it is — now’s the time to make those plans public.
The mayor has made it quite clear that he sees businesses as cows to be milked or slaughtered to feed the ravening maw of city services. There’s scarcely a sign of cutting expenses in the budget and a host of new pet projects.
I think they’re pleading in vain. Business leaders have an option they’re more likely to take than playing hardball with City Hall: get out of Dodge.
My question remains as it has been for nearly two years. What did people expect? The Chicago Teachers Union “brung” Brandon Johnson. He’s maintained what little popularity he retains by funneling more money to public employee union members. The solutions the editors envision, economic and population growth, play hardly any role in the mayor’s thinking.
In 1950, the population of Chicago was 3.6 million, and it was a major manufacturing and transportation hub. In the 2020 census, its population was 2.7 million, a 25% reduction, and much of the manufacturing had left. Estimates put its current, 2024, population at 2.7 million still, but I doubt that number.
This is the general pattern for most large American cities, and it reflects the general loss of US manufacturing capacity, which is now less than half the Chinese capacity, and only somewhat larger, if indeed it is, than Russia’s. Both Chinese and Russian factories are more modern and automated than are American factories. US manufacturing continues to decline, whereas both Russian and Chinese manufacturing continues to expand.
Chicago’s geographical location, like New York’s, guarantees it will always be an important economic center, but like New York, the repeated election of openly Marxist mayors and councilmen will drive out a great deal of the upper class and corporations.
Just how small Chicago will become is uncertain. I doubt we will see half the city actually abandoned, like Detroit, but the idea that its population and economy will not shrink further is really Pollyannaish in the extreme.
The likelihood that there is a major default on all of Chicago’s debt, including its pension funds, is very high, almost a certainty.
I doubt it, too. I think that the populations on the South, West, and East sides of Chicago have decreased sharply. I’m working on methods of measuring that indirectly.
IMO that’s an issue for the state of Illinois, a serious one, since the state is so dependent on Chicago. I think the city needs to go into a sort of receivership, possibly even splitting it up into multiple, smaller cities which is how Chicago was assembled in the first place.
“Get out of Dodge”
Financial firms are already moving to Jacksonville, FL and Miami. From Chicago and NYC. Imagine if Mamdani wins. And your mayor is a captive idiot.
bob sykes: In 1950, the population of Chicago was 3.6 million … In the 2020 census, its population was 2.7 million
However, the population of the Chicago metropolitan area has increased from 5 million to 9 million. This is not atypical. Cities form the core of commercial activity, but people and businesses move out of the city proper for nearby, lower-taxed communities. They will often still work or do business in or near the city, though. The effect is to reduce the tax base of the city, even though the city is essential for the prosperity of the metropolitan area.
One of Chicago’s many problems is that unlike is the case with nearly all other Illinois cities, Chicago pays for the retirements of its own teachers. That’s on top of paying into the Teachers Pension Fund which funds districts other than the CPS.
Chicago’s declining population poses a particular problem in paying defined benefit pensions for retired police officers, firefighters, teachers, and other public employees.