Submitted by pda_ill_admin on Tue, 08/03/2010 - 16:18

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by Lorin M Klugman

The Wall Street Journal referred to the City of Chicago's $654.7 million deficit for 2011 as the "largest shortfall in its history". The same story mentions "Mayor Richard M. Daley, ... hasn't indicated whether he will run for a seventh term next year".

On July 20, 2010 Walter Jacobson reported that Daley may not run again.

Bill's been saying in public that he doesn't know what his brother's planning to do. In private, he's been saying the mayor intends not to run again - because he wants more time to spend with Maggie, and the job isn't fun anymore.

-- Walter Jacobson

As we reported earlier, Daley's poll numbers are at an all time low. Citizens and businesses are outraged and concerned. A quick recap:

• Daley named in several lawsuites by wrongfully convicted Chicagoans. Law suites tie Daley to the Jon Burge torture case.
• Daley pushes for lower wages and elimination of local businesses in favor of the human right's violator "Walmart".
• Daley commercializes (aka privitize) Chicago schools, parking meters, and attempts on air ports and water.
• Chicago teachers fired and class room sizes increased in order to pay for gigantice raise to Huberman.
• Citizen group "Raise Your Hand Coalition" demands tax revenue from Chicago Public Schools $275 million be re-directed from TIF to the Chicago Public Schools.

Our word on the steet is Daley will not run for re-election. Most Democrats are intimidated to make any announcements. It's our duty as citizens to let folks know that Chicago deserves a choice.

More to come as story evolves.

The Wall Street Journal July 30, 2010:

CHICAGO—The city is projecting a $654.7 million deficit in its proposed budget for 2011, the largest shortfall in its history, as the recession continues to hit city and state finances nationwide.

 

The projected deficit equals nearly 20% of Chicago's proposed general-fund budget of $3.39 billion. The city budget runs on a calendar year.

 

The city plugged a $520 million gap in this year's budget by ordering employees to take unpaid furlough days and dipping into rapidly dwindling reserves from leasing Chicago's parking meters to a private company.

 

"Drawing down reserves every year is not a long-term solution," budget director Eugene Munin said Friday. The city is looking to cut expenses before considering new revenue sources, he said.

 

 More background on Walmart and it's impact on the local economy:

The opening of a Wal-Mart on the West Side of Chicago in 2006 led to the closure of about one-quarter of the businesses within a four-mile radius, according to this study by researchers at Loyola University. They tracked 306 businesses, checking their status before Wal-Mart opened and one and two years after it opened. More than half were also surveyed by phone about employees, work hours, and wages. By the second year, 82 of the businesses had closed. Businesses within close proximity of Wal-Mart had a 40 percent chance of closing. The probability of going out of business fell 6 percent with each mile away from Wal-Mart. These closures eliminated the equivalent of 300 full-time jobs, about as many Wal-Mart added to the area. Sales tax and employment data provided by the state of Illinois for Wal-Mart's zip code and surrounding zip codes confirmed that overall sales and employment in the neighborhood did not increase, but actually dipped from the trend line. Although Wal-Mart claims its urban stores recapture dollars leaking to the suburbs, the findings of this study suggest that urban Wal-Mart stores primarily displace sales from other city stores. "There is no evidence that Wal-Mart sparked any significant net growth in economic activity or employment in the area," the researchers conclude. The study also examines Wal-Mart's Job and Opportunity Zones initiative, which provided marketing for five local businesses, and found it largely ineffective.

-- New Rules Project  The Impact of an Urban Wal-Mart Store on Area Businesses - by Julie Davis, David Merriman, Lucia Samayoa, Brian Flanagan, Ron Baiman, and Joe Persky, published by the Center for Urban Research and Learning Loyola University Chicago, December 2009.