Tuesday, July 29, 2008

City managers face furloughs

Sun-Times:
Two thousand city managers earning more than $75,000 a year will be required to take three unpaid furlough days by Dec. 31 to help ease Chicago's worst budget crisis in decades under a mayoral plan to be presented today before a City Council committee.

The Finance Committee is expected to approve Mayor Daley's $3 million furlough plan, triggering a period of shared sacrifice that's certain to extend to the city's unionized employees.

"We're looking at every option -- from personnel, programs and facilities to processes, cost recovery, grants and service. We are scrutinizing both sides of the budget equation -- cutting expenses and generating revenue," said Wendy Abrams, a spokesperson for the Office of Budget and Management.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported Sunday that Daley's preliminary 2009 budget is expected to include the largest shortfall in recent memory -- more than $400 million according to some sources -- setting the stage for service cuts, employee layoffs, unpaid furlough days or a combination of the three.

Earlier this year, Daley ordered $20 million in mid-year budget cuts to brace Chicago for the impact of an economy "in recession." Roughly $250,000 of that savings came from suspending non-critical out-of-town travel and by "encouraging" city managers to take more unpaid furlough days.

Now City Hall will stop "encouraging" and start mandating furlough days.

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