Over 30 years, Chicago lost 300,000 residents, but still hiked spending 60 percent

Chicago City Wire reports:

The City of Chicago will spend 60 percent more in 2019 than it did thirty years ago, in 1989, even though its population fell 11 percent over the same span.

That's according to an analysis of city Annual Appropriation Ordinance documents by Chicago City Wire. The city's annual appropriation represents what it is approved to spend by the Mayor and City Council, though using accounting gimmicks and borrowing it typically manages to spend more hundreds of millions more.

The city said it has planned to spend $3,529 for each of its 2,479,360 residents this year, versus $2,212 for 2,783,911 residents in 1989. That's an increase of 60 percent, adjusted for inflation.

City finance officials projected Chicago residents would pay $8.75 billion in taxes to fund city government this year-- 17 percent ($1.5 billion) in property taxes and another $7.23 billion in various city fees, fines and surcharges.

The city's share of Chicago property taxes are not used to pay for any services but, rather, exclusively to pay interest on the city's massive debt, which now totals some $57 billion-- $26.9 billion in bonds and $30 billion in "pension" debt, according to the Illinois State Comptroller.

All city operations, including budget officials estimated, would cost a total of $6.03 billion this year.

Chicago by the numbers.