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Mayor Emanuels Financial Record

From 2011 to 2017 under Mayor Emanuels leadership, the City of Chicago has made significant and meaningful
reforms to benefit the Citys financial health and long-term financial health.

Structural Budget Gap Reduction


In 2012, the City of Chicagos structural deficit was $635 million. Year-over-year through expense reductions and
sustainable revenues, the City reduced this shortfall for 2018 to $114.2 million, or the lowest structural budget gap in
more than a decade.

Eliminating Scoop and Toss


With the 2016 budget, the City began a four-year phase out of the financial practice known as scoop and toss in which
the City restructures its near term debt payments with long-term debt. This practice was used to mask the true cost of
government for decades. This phase out will be completed one year ahead of schedule in 2018.

Pension Solvency and a path to ARC Funding


The City secured legislation in Illinois to put all four of the Citys pension funds on a fixed contribution ramp over five
years that reaches actuarial-required contributions (ARC) in the sixth year and a 90 percent funded ratio over forty years.
These actions prevented certain insolvency of all four funds and achieved meaningful pension funding reform that was
fair to taxpayers, retirees and employees. Over the five year ramp period, the City will deposit $3.6 billion into all four
pension funds.

TIF reform
Mayor Emanuel instituted a policy of reviewing each TIF on an annual basis and declaring unneeded funds as surplus. As
a result, the City has declared a TIF surplus every year since 2011, including the 2018 budget, returning over $1,021.9
million to local taxing bodies, of which CPS has received 50% of the surplus.

No Longer Selling City Assets


In November 2015, Mayor Emanuel worked with City Council and the Better Government Association to pass the
Privatization Transparency, Accountability and Performance Ordinance to limit privatization measures in Chicago. The
ordinance requires three months of public and City Council review before an agreement is considered, among other
requirements, to reduce the reliance on selling City owned assets.

Moving Operating Expenses off Long-Term Borrowing


Since 2012, the City paid for more than $161 million in retroactive salary payments and $58.2 million in working capital
from the operating budget, instead of resorting to long-term borrowing.

Eliminating Variable Rate Debt and Terminating Swaps


In 2016, the City completely converted its taxpayer-backed variable rate debt replacing them with stable, fixed rate bonds,
and terminated the corresponding interest rate swaps to eliminate taxpayer risk.

Increasing Long-term Reserves


In 2011 the City started to rebuild its reserves to enhance overall long-term financial stability. Since 2012, the City added
$55 million into the reserve fund with another $5M to be deposited in 2018.

Managing Healthcare Costs


The City has adopted proactive strategies to combat the rising national costs of healthcare and employee healthcare costs
have remained flat since 2011 through coordination with their partners in Labor. As healthcare costs continue to rise
nationally, the City has been able to slow its annual healthcare cost growth through ongoing savings and reforms, such as
promoting the use of generic drugs, incentivizing providers to use standard diagnostic lab tests, and promoting proactive
healthcare management by employees and their dependents.

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