Maximum property tax hike sought for Chicago public schools

Rosalind Rossi:

Chicago property taxes that fund schools would be raised to the maximum allowed by law for the first time in four years -- costing the average homeowner an extra $84 a year -- under a proposed Chicago Public School budget released Friday.

To fill a $712 million deficit, the first budget outlined by Mayor Rahm Emanuel's new school team would hike property taxes by $150.3 million, cut spending by $320.7 million, and use $241 million in reserve dollars to keep the system in the black.

Faced with rising costs and the evaporation of one-time federal dollars, the budget marks the second year in a row that CPS plans to spend more than it takes in, a pattern experts call "unsustainable.'' And, CPS officials concede, even grimmer days await three years from now, when a pension contribution waiver expires and the system's pension tab will skyrocket.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at August 8, 2011 2:08 AM
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