Office of Budget and Management
The Office of Budget and Management oversees the city’s budget, including preparing and presenting the annual budget. OBM hearings typically include questions from alderpersons about the budget as a whole, in addition to OBM’s specific budget appropriations.
Change Highlights and Context
- Last year the OBM line item for American Rescue Plan Investment totaled a $38 million lump sum. The 2023 budget proposal does not include ARP investment funds for OBM. This raises questions about the continuation of ARP-funded programs.It is unclear from budget data whether those programs will be continued or not, and if so, with what funding source. The Recovery Plan Exhibit lists OBM as the parent department for three pandemic relief programs funded with a combination of American Rescue Plan and proceeds from a $660 million general obligation bond, with ARP funds making up the majority of the program funding:
- Last year’s budget assigned a $1.3 billion American Rescue Plan Revenue Replacement appropriation to OBM, which allowed the city to use federal pandemic relief funds to supplement revenue streams affected by COVID-19. This year the ARP revenue replacement is down to $152.4 million, which makes OBM appear to have undergone a -85.5% budget cut. This is not reflective of a reduction in actual operational, non-contract spending, which Mayor Lightfoot has set at $6.4 million, up from $5.5 million in 2021.
- The Professional and Technical Services category, which covers outside contracting, is still a substantial portion of OBM’s budget despite a cut from $307 million in 2022 to $76.7 million in 2023. Spending on outside contracts accounts for 92% of OBM’s non-ARP funding in the 2023 budget proposal.
Mayor’s Office
There is no departmental budget hearing scheduled for the mayor’s office, meaning that OBM’s first-day presentation on the overall budget is the only opportunity alderpersons will have to publicly discuss appropriations to cover the cost of operating the mayor’s office.
Change Highlights and Context
- The departmental budget change was driven entirely by personnel costs. Non-personnel appropriations remained unchanged, while the outside contracting budget was substantially reduced from $3.4 million to $160,000. Budgets do not contain individual contract line items, so it is unclear which contract services from 2022 are not planned to continue into 2023.
- The 2023 budget for the mayor’s office includes a new American Rescue Plan Fiscal Recovery section with 15 new full-time positions, budgeted at $2.8 million in salaries, and a new Office of Climate and Environmental Equity with 6 full-time positions, budgeted at $640,000 in salaries total.
- A recent Inspector General’s investigation of Chicago Police Department-related settlements and judgements found significant data-sharing issues between the city’s overlapping risk management administrations. According to the report, this disconnect “limit(s) the City’s ability to understand areas of litigation risk to the City.” The mayor’s office is one of three departments with risk management staff, with $398,352 budgeted for staff salaries in the Office of Risk Management, in addition to the finance and police departments.
Department of Finance
The Department of Finance is headed by the City Comptroller and is responsible for the collection and disbursement of city funds.
Change Highlights and Context
- The largest DOF budget increases come from the IT Maintenance category ($519,130), followed by the Professional and Technical Services (outside contracting) category ($499,562).
- The proposed budget includes two new Assistant Commissioner positions and a new Assistant Director of Finance position, in addition to eight existing Assistant Director positions
- A recent Inspector General’s investigation of Chicago Police Department-related settlements and judgements found significant data-sharing issues between the city’s overlapping risk management administrations. According to the report, this disconnect “limit(s) the City’s ability to understand areas of litigation risk to the City.” The city’s finance department is one of three departments with risk management staff, with $842,360 budgeted for staff salaries in the Risk Management subsection, in addition to the mayor’s office and police department.
