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发帖数: 5456 | 1 CPS set for $200 million in cuts; mayor floats property tax plan
CTU responds to CPS proposed cuts
Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jesse Sharkey responds to Chicago
Public Schools' proposed cuts on July 1, 2015, at CTU headquarters.
By Bill Ruthhart, Bill Ruthhart and Heather Gillers
Chicago Tribune
contact the reporters Educators Elementary Schools Pensions Rahm Emanuel
Chicago Public Schools Chicago City Hall Chicago Teachers Union
Mayor Emanuel, schools chief outline cuts to jobs, services
Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday detailed the fallout he attributes to
Chicago Public Schools making good on a $634 million pension payment: 1,050
workers will lose their jobs, 350 vacant positions will be eliminated and
several education programs will be slashed as a result of $200 million in
budget cuts.
Emanuel also proposed a $175 million property tax increase to help pay for
teacher pensions — but only if the state and Chicago's teachers chip in as
part of what the mayor described as a "grand bargain" to put an end to the
district's perennial money woes.
Much of that plan would require approval from state legislators who remain
gridlocked over their own budget problems.
Emanuel calls out Springfield
Emanuel calls out Springfield, wants reform in order to save CPS. July 1,
2015. (WGN TV)
The district used borrowed money to make its massive pension payment Tuesday
after failing to win an extension in Springfield. Emanuel said that even
with layoffs and cuts, schools will open on time and that classroom sizes
will not grow.
Emanuel blamed the district's tenuous financial position on years of
lawmakers in Springfield allowing City Hall to put off pension payments.
"In my view, these cuts are intolerable, they're unacceptable and they're
totally unconscionable," Emanuel said. "They're a result of a political
system that's sprung a leak and now it's a geyser. There's a series of
political compromises and patchwork over the years that can no longer
continue."
Interim schools CEO Jesse Ruiz said layoffs will mostly hit central office
and school support staff and that "very few" teachers will lose their jobs.
No specific numbers were given.
But Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jesse Sharkey said Wednesday that
"what cuts have been specified would do real damage to our schools."
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The union also is upset over Emanuel's proposal to end the practice of
having the city pick up all but 2 percent of the 9 percent pension
contribution required of teachers, an idea that, according to the union, had
been broached earlier in contract negotiations.
"This is troubling to us, because it appears to be backsliding —
backtracking on commitments that were made at the bargaining table," Sharkey
said. "Because right now, frankly, the city's bargaining position is that
the pension pickup would remain for the coming year."
CPS has yet to finalize a budget for the fiscal year that began Wednesday.
Last year's operating budget totaled about $5.8 billion, and the district in
2014 employed about 40,000 workers.
Among the cuts Ruiz said the district will make:
More than $17 million from network offices, affecting new teacher
development programs and money for new so-called turnaround schools.
More than $11 million from professional development for turnaround schools.
Chicago Public Schools staff levels
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Chicago Public Schools staff levels
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Change in staff levels at CPS
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Almost $16 million in startup funding for newly approved charter, contract
and alternative learning schools.
Central funding for elementary school sports teams totaling $3.2 million.
Twenty-five percent of the facility repair and maintenance budget, totaling
$11.1 million.
The district also says it can save $9.2 million by shifting the start of
high school to 45 minutes later in the day, which officials say would reduce
transportation costs. The schools then would end their day 45 minutes later
, officials said.
CPS officials on Wednesday also began issuing warnings of even more painful
layoffs and spending reductions in the future if the district doesn't get
relief from either Springfield or the teachers pension fund before next year.
cComments
@redlap: Look who's lecturing others about greed. Pay your full 9%
contribution, then you can talk.
ALICE WELLINGTON
AT 12:24 PM JULY 02, 2015
ADD A COMMENTSEE ALL COMMENTS
145
Appearing at a meeting Wednesday morning of the Chicago Teachers' Pension
Fund, CPS chief administrator Tim Cawley asked the fund board to consider "
deferring" $500 million of next year's roughly $700 million pension payment
for another year.
In exchange, Cawley said, CPS would move to a system of making pension
payments on a monthly basis for 10 years beginning Jan. 1, a system the
pension fund prefers.
Without getting the pension break a year from now, the district faces a half
-billion-dollar deficit, Cawley said.
"That $500 million would mean layoffs of over 3,000 teachers, class sizes of
35 or more, furlough days, problems throughout the district, really
devastating cuts to our schools," Cawley said.
Emanuel, who has warned that without help from the state, district cuts will
start to affect the classroom, insisted Wednesday that is not yet the case.
Rauner and Democratic lawmakers show no signs of progress
Rauner and Democratic lawmakers show no signs of progress
"While we still have not affected the classroom, they are now beginning to
affect what I refer to as operations at the schools themselves, and that is
a different ill," Emanuel said. "And maybe you can call me an optimist, but
I actually believe even Springfield can hear this level of pain and
understand and come to terms, even in all the politics that goes on down
there, this is intolerable, it should be unacceptable to them."
The mayor offered two potential solutions to address what he has long argued
is an inequity in how Chicago's teacher pensions are funded. Chicago
taxpayers fund the rest of the state's teacher pensions through their state
income taxes while paying local property taxes toward Chicago teacher
retirement.
Emanuel proposed merging Chicago's teachers pension system with the
statewide retirement fund. He argued that a merged fund would be stronger
overall because Chicago has funded a larger percentage of its pensions than
the suburban and downstate fund has.
As an alternative, Emanuel offered his "grand bargain" for changing how
Chicago's teacher pensions are funded while overhauling the state's
education funding formula.
The mayor proposed that the state pick up the so-called normal pension costs
— the annual amount CPS owes to the pension fund, not including years
worth of missed payments that were signed off on by state lawmakers.
In addition, Emanuel would restore a property tax levy dedicated to teacher
pensions, a tax increase the mayor estimated would generate an additional $
175 million. Such a dedicated levy existed in Chicago before 1995, he said.
"Chicago teachers, Chicago taxpayers and Chicago kids are being treated as
second-class citizens by the state of Illinois," Emanuel said. "The whole
system, in my view, is inside out and upside down and it's leading to a set
of decisions that are totally intolerable. Our kids and teachers deserve
better from political leaders."
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