The city treasurer is one of three elected city-wide officials, along with the mayor and the clerk. The treasurer manages the city’s bank accounts and pension and investment funds.

Departmental Highlights

Snapshot: Appropriation & Staffing Changes from 2025 Budget

	2025 Budgeted	2026 Proposed	Net Change	Percent Change	Average Annual Rate of Change (2011-2025)	Inflation-adjusted Rate of Change (2011-2024)
Appropriations	$6,539,097	$6,504,251	-$34,846	-0.5%	14.3%	8.9%
Positions & FTEs	43	40	-3	-7.0%	6.8%	NA

• The CTO’s net -3 headcount reduction consists entirely of eliminating the Security Specialist title, both as a salaried and hourly position. (At the full-time level, the two budgeted Security Specialist positions had been persistent vacancies from at least Feb-Sept of this year.)
• Most appropriation-level changes in CTO’s budget were relatively minor, tens of thousands rather than hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in adjustments. Salaries and wages saw the largest increase, going up $17,237 (0.4%). 
• The technical meeting costs and reimbursement to travelers categories were eliminated entirely from CTO’s budget this year. 

Historical Context

The City Treasurer’s Office has seen one of the highest rates of budget growth of non-ARPA funded departments, and relatively high sustained rates of growth in budgeted headcount as well. 

From 2011-2025, CTO’s budget grew at an average rate of 14.3% annually, or 8.9% adjusted for inflation, compared to a citywide average rate of 8.3% (inflation-adjusted 4.4%). Much of that growth has come in the past four years; from 2020 to 2025, CTO’s budget increased by a net 58.6%.

Over the past three complete budget years for which local fund actuals/encumbrances data is available, CTO spent on average 84.3% of its locally funded budget, compared to the citywide average 86.4% local fund spend.

Staffing levels at CTO have followed roughly the same path as appropriations, with a rise in 2016 followed by a relative plateau until steeper increases beginning in 2022 and continuing on up to a 2025 high of 43 budgeted positions. Overall, the department’s budgeted headcount grew at an average annual rate of 6.8% from 2011-2025, compared to a citywide average annual change of -0.1%.

From February through September of 2025, the months for which the city released full-time position vacancy data, CTO averaged an 18% vacancy rate, compared to the citywide average of 11.2%. 

Five of the department’s budgeted full-time positions were persistent vacancies, meaning that the same title/division/section/subsection combination was vacant for all eight months of available data:

Budgeted Position Changes

The CTO’s net -3 headcount reduction consists entirely of eliminating the Security Specialist title, both as a salaried and hourly position. (At the full-time level, the two budgeted Security Specialist positions had been persistent vacancies from at least Feb-Sept of this year.)

Appropriations

CTO is entirely locally-funded in this year’s budget proposal. Half of the department’s appropriations come from the Corporate Fund, with the rest made up of the airport, water and sewer, and TIF administration funds. 

Fund	2025 Budgeted	2026 Proposed	Net Change from 2025	Percent Change from 2025	Percent of 2026 Recommended Funds
Corporate Fund	$3,327,752	$3,252,172	-$75,580	-2.3%	50.0%
Chicago O’Hare Airport Fund	$1,357,541	$1,403,046	$45,505	3.4%	21.6%
Water Fund	$603,240	$546,738	-$56,502	-9.4%	8.4%
Tax Increment Financing Administration Fund	$529,894	$545,415	$15,521	2.9%	8.4%
Chicago Midway Airport Fund	$443,559	$489,203	$45,644	10.3%	7.5%
Sewer Fund	$277,111	$267,677	-$9,434	-3.4%	4.1%

Largest Appropriations

As with most departments, personnel costs make up the bulk of CTO’s appropriations, with salaries and wages on payroll by far the largest expense category. 

In 2024, the most recent complete budget year for which local fund actuals and encumbrances data is available, CTO spent 86.5% of its locally-funded budget. 

Change from Previous Year

Most appropriation-level changes in CTO’s budget were relatively minor, tens of thousands rather than hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in adjustments. Salaries and wages saw the largest increase, going up $17,237 (0.4%). 

The technical meeting costs and reimbursement to travelers categories were eliminated entirely from CTO’s budget this year.