CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago officials say the city’s budget in 2018 will have a $114.2 million shortfall, the smallest in 10 years.
However, aides to Mayor Rahm Emanuel concede the projected budget does not include costs for actions the mayor has committed to for next year. Those include the hiring of new police officers and back pay in a new city worker contract. Those costs could add tens of millions more dollars to the budget.
Spokeswoman Molly Poppe says city officials are looking at everything, but their focus is “on savings, reforms and efficiencies.”
Emanuel credited cost-reduction efforts he’d made over the years for the reduced budget deficit. However, he also has increased taxes and fees for city operations since first being elected in 2011, when the shortfall was $636 million
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