Chicago trails only New York on the list of U.S. cities with the highest debt-to-taxpayer ratio. | regularguy.eth/Unsplash
Chicago trails only New York on the list of U.S. cities with the highest debt-to-taxpayer ratio. | regularguy.eth/Unsplash
A report by Illinois Policy gave Chicago a grade of "F" in its latest Financial State of the Cities rankings, adding that Chicago—at $41,900 in debt per taxpayer—trails only New York on the list of cities with the highest debt-to-taxpayer ratio.
Oak Park Village Trustee Jim Dodge said the city has overextended itself, telling the South Cook News that residents are overtaxed.
"Definitely, and if you look at our taxes and compare them to other states you’ll see that we’re even more overpromised," he said. "It’s why we have such horrible pension debt and even more debt being created even when on paper it says that the budget is balanced."
The Feb. 10 report said that New York, in comparison to Chicago, has a per-taxpayer debt burden of $56,900.
"That means each of the city’s taxpayers would have to send a check for that amount to City Hall just to pay the bills Chicago has accumulated over the years," the report said. The high debt burden persists despite improvements from one-time federal COVID-19 aid and unusually high pension investment returns.
The study found that the City of Chicago had just $10.6 billion in assets available to pay bills totaling nearly $48.8 billion, and the total bills were more than 2.5 times higher than third-ranked Philadelphia’s $19.5 billion.
That’s yet another indicator of just how much the City is struggling with debt and spending, especially as the city experiences a drop in population, Dodge added.
"It’s definitely an issue as people grow more and more tired of all the taxation," he said.
Overall, the growth in Chicago’s pension and debt service costs now eat up nearly 43% of the City’s budget; and after massive increases in recent years, the City has more than doubled its property tax levy in recent years to keep up the payments, Illinois Policy reported.
Dodge said more serious reforms are needed.
"We’re going to have to reform many levels of government and make it where politicians can’t just keep overpromising, then passing the cost on to others," he said.
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