Chicago’s veteran reformers praise Chuy Garcia on finances
If the media are right when they insinuate that Chuy Garcia is so unprepared to deal with the city’s finances, why are so many veteran good-government reformers backing him?
For one thing, they remember how disastrous much of the media thought Harold Washington was going to be on finances when he ran for mayor in 1983 — he couldn’t even pay his own taxes on time! he was a criminal! — and how he went on to lead the most fiscally responsible administration in recent history.
But there’s much more. “For me, it’s particularly important that we deal with [the budget crisis] in a way that involves citizens and is accountable to citizens rather than technocrats or backroom operators,” said former Ald. Dick Simpson, now a political science professor. “There are going to be choices and sacrifices, and I think we as citizens need to have a voice in that. We won’t under Rahm Emanuel and a rubber-stamp City Council.”
He recalled the budget hearings held in communities across the city by Washington, scaled back by Mayor Richard Daley and eliminated by Emanuel. “It was actually a process where you were heard and you were taken seriously,” Simpson said. “If we’re going to have to make some service cuts and have some tax increases, you want citizens to be part of the decision-making, because there will be choices and tradeoffs.”
Garcia has dealt with budgets at the city, county and state levels, said former City Clerk Miguel del Valle, who ran for mayor against Emanuel four years ago.
“He has an unblemished record as an elected official, and on top of that, he has a deep understanding of the city and its neighborhoods,” del Valle said. “He understands what it means to provide balanced development — as was done in the Harold Washington administration — with a balance between downtown and neighborhood development, to correct the inequities when it comes to distributing city resources.”
Those who herald Emanuel as a competent administrator ignore his record, while those who attack Garcia ignore the plan he’s put forward, said Cook County Clerk David Orr, who is co-chair of Garcia’s campaign.
“Rahm Emanuel has failed,” Orr said. “He’s nearly bankrupted the city.
“I don’t know what tough decisions he’s made. He’s put off his school budget — his school board used 14 months for a 12-month budget. He’s put off pension payments. Sure, he passed four city budgets without property-tax increases — using hundreds of millions of dollars worth of fines and fees, red light cameras and speed cameras, and with $1.9 billion in expanded borrowing. And of course his school board and Park District raised property taxes to the limit.”
Emanuel’s huge campaign war chest allows him to distort his record and evade accountability, Orr said.
“He blames everything under the sun on Daley — without mentioning his name — but his relationship with Daley is what got him where he is today. Then he tries to tag Chuy with ‘the failed policies of the past,’ and Chuy, if anybody, has been fighting the machine since the day he stepped into City Hall. He’s never been Chicago’s veteran reformers praise Chuy Garcia on finances | Chicago Reporter:
