Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Politics / Clout City The odds on Emanuel's budget
Posted by Steve Bogira on 11.08.11 at 08:00 AM
The bookies considered the deep cuts Emanuel has proposed—including the closing of mental health clinics, other reductions in public health, and the elimination of the Department of Environment—as well as measures of independent thinking among current aldermen, the mayor's inexperience in city government, and historical trends. Combining these elements, the bookies say the chances of budget approval are approximately 100 percent, with a zero percent margin of error.
"We used a highly sophisticated mathematical model," one bookie told me, "which boiled down to the fact that the City Council always approves the mayor's budget with hardly any changes." The bookie spoke on the condition of anonymity because he's very shy. "Chicago aldermen consider it rude to mess with a mayor's budget," he said.
The bookie noted one exception to the historical trend: when Harold Washington was mayor in the mid-1980s, the council fought him tooth and nail over the budget. "I can't put my finger on it," the bookie said, "but there was something different about Harold."
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