Can Rahm Tame Chicago's Unions?
As he enters office, new Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel faces a $1 billion budget deficit, a gap he won't be able to cover without public union concessions.
Rahm Emanuel's victory in Chicago's mayoral election marked a number of firsts. He is Chicago's first Jewish mayor, some would argue the first non-resident to ever win the spot, and the first to talk candidly about what Chicago's labor contracts are costing it. In fact, the only thing that was similar to past years was the lack of any credible Republican contender. But there was one more first: he is also our first mayor with ballet training, and it may be that his plies, jetes and pirouettes will be most on display in the next four years.
Mr. Emanuel is facing a $1 billion budget deficit as he enters office, most of which is structural and the largest in real terms Chicago has faced in a generation. Mayor Daley has plugged recent holes by more borrowing and selling $3 billion in parking meter and other City assets, but according to the respected Civic Federation, the city has burned through 80% of those sales proceeds already and there is nothing left to sell. Moreover, the City's credit rating cannot support more borrowing. Ballooning pension fund obligations make up about half of the budget gap. Mr. Emanuel was not shy about raising this issue in the campaign and was the only candidate who would not rule out cutting pension benefits for existing employees. Not surprisingly, the fire and police unions backed one of his challengers, while the teachers stayed neutral.
Chicago's problems, and the need for union concessions to solve them, don't end there. Chicago's chronically underperforming public school system is still in need of major changes, and Mr. Emanuel made his support for charter schools and the need for continuing mayoral control of the school board unequivocal during the campaign. Further battles with the unions over teacher pay for performance, accountability, longer school days, and the Board's own $720 million deficit are looming. And he is even vowing to privatize garbage collection, long a haven of inefficiency, cost overruns and patronage.
Can he get it done? As always, success will hinge on his ability to control his agenda in the City Council. Although it effectively became a rubber stamp body during the Daley era, Daley worked hard to cultivate the Council and its factions and figured out the ward-by-ward patronage and pork barrel calculus needed to ensure its acquiescence. Mr. Emanuel starts with a reasonable base of support from the election: he won not only his traditional base in the north and northwest sides, but also did well in the predominantly African-American wards on the south and west sides. But, as Harold Washington found during his tenure, the City Council can stall any mayor's agenda if it wants to, and Alderman Ed Burke, as head of the powerful Finance Committee, is the linchpin. Burke backed Mr. Emanuel's challenger in the election, and Emanuel made it clear in the campaign that he might strip Burke of his Committee. How this pas de deux goes will be central to Mr. Emanuel's success.
These issues are of course part of a similar and much broader bipartisan debate that is gripping many statehouses and city halls right now. Solving these issues will require, as they always do in Chicago, a combination of bare knuckled brawling and finesse. As Mr. Emanuel is well known for the former, let us hope he can also muster the dance moves when he needs them. Tights anyone?