Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration will announce Monday its cost-cutting has been more effective than projected: $83 million or $8 million more than the $75 million Emanuel targeted when he took office.
Emanuel told department heads when he took office in May that he wanted them to cut all non-essential contracts for city services by 6 percent.
He expected a few of them to come in and complain that it could not be done. None did. So instead of just $17.5 million in savings over what was budgeted, that brought in $23.8 million, Budget Director Alexandra Holt told the Sun-Times Saturday.
No word on how much of that "savings" is offset by "giveaways," "tax breaks," "connected contracts" and "raises to Rahm's people."
The article also has this gem in it:
- “The city is still in a financial crisis,” [Civic Federation President Laurence] Msall said. “It still has a structural deficit. We estimated that at $650 million, and we think about two-thirds of that is eliminated in 2012. And there is still the ticking time bomb of under-funded pensions. But clearly Mayor Emanuel and his team are moving the city in a positive direction with this.”