Has Rahm Emanuel lost his financial nerve?

Crain's Chicago Business reports:

the $1.1 billion in new general obligation borrowing that Emanuel floated with aldermen in a series of briefings late yesterday.

Some of the borrowing is understandable and unavoidable. Like the rest of that exchange of floating-rate for fixed-rate I referred to above, or financing the city's closeout of losing swap derivative positions. That's $343 million combined. In the same category is $181 million to refinance a lease deal on the Chicago Transit Authority's Orange Line that, given the Moody's downgrade, could have forced the city to post collateral.

But $35 million to pay for a loan taken out when the city purchased the old Michael Reese Hospital site for the 2016 Olympics? Or $85 million in legal settlements, $75 million in back pay for police and $170 million to refinance old debt that's now due, a process known as scoop and toss?

Then there's my favorite: "Two years of capitalized interest, $170 million." In other words, not only is the city going to borrow money, but it's going to borrow money to avoid having to pay interest on what was borrowed until, um, later. When someone else is mayor.

City officials have not been available to discuss this in detail. But even if such tactics have been used in the past, they sure look like more of what got Chicago up a creek in the first place. Most municipalities pay for legal settlements and pay raises out of their operating budget with tax revenue. They don't ship the bill to the grandkids.

"All of these are things that Mayor Emanuel said he would stay away from when he spoke to the Civic Federation this spring," says federation President Laurence Msall, referring to a speech in which the mayor promised to cut back and eventually eliminate things like scoop and toss.

Blue America, crack-up.