Or: SCHRÖDINGER'S BUDGET

Chicago Public Schools, TIFs, Tyler Tech, and the politics of assumptions.

In this episode: mayoral control and the 2013 school closures, the MEABF pension shift Lightfoot pushed onto CPS, the 2024 mass board resignation, the Tyler Technologies fiasco holding up $1.2–1.5 billion in property tax revenue, the difference between a bond and a note (and why "note" now means 20 years in Wisconsin), Illinois's Evidence-Based Funding formula and the super-regressive property tax it can't fix, and the tax ex machina: TIF surplus revenues that have grown 325% and could — if the mayor and alders decide — fill the gap.


CHAPTERS

- 00:00 Cold open (Rosh Hashanah 5787)

- 05:07 On being "a little stupid" in the face of complexity

- 12:38 Brandon Johnson, the "dog that caught the car"

- 18:23 MEABF pension shift and the 2024 board resignation

- 25:34 Schrödinger's budget

- 29:08 Credit ratings, TANs, and the "problematic borrower"

- 35:52 Bond vs. note (and Wisconsin's 20-year loophole)

- 48:00 Tyler Tech, Dorothy Brown, $1.2B in stuck taxes

- 1:07:26 Evidence-Based Funding and the adequacy target

- 1:16:35 The super-regressive property tax

- 1:32:29 TIFs as tax ex machina

- 1:44:40 Enough money exists — will politics allow it?


BOOKS & WORKS MENTIONED

- Alberta Sbragia, Debt Wish (1996):

- Alberta Sbragia (ed.), The Municipal Money Chase (Westview, 1983)

- Pauline Lipman, The New Political Economy of Urban Education (Routledge, 2011):

- Jim Lebenthal, Confessions of a Municipal Bond Salesman (Wiley, 2006)

- Donald Barthelme, The Dead Father (1975)

- Natasha Myers, Rendering Life Molecular (Duke, 2015):

- David Foster Wallace, "This Is Water"


CHICAGO SOURCES

- CPS FY26 budget: https://www.cps.edu/about/finance/budget/

- Chicago Tribune on Tyler Tech: https://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/tyler-technologies/

- Capitol News Illinois: https://capitolnewsillinois.com/

- ISBE Evidence-Based Funding: https://www.isbe.net/ebfdist

- Cook County Treasurer (Maria Pappas): https://www.cookcountytreasurer.com/

- 2013 CPS school closures (Chicago Reader background): https://chicagoreader.com/news-politics/chicago-school-closings-2013/

- Chicago TIF district maps: https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dcd/supp_info/tif-district-profile-maps.html

- Chicago Teachers Union: https://www.ctulocal1.org/

- Mayor Brandon Johnson's office: https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/mayor.html

- Oct 2024 CPS board mass resignation (Chalkbeat): https://www.chalkbeat.org/chicago/2024/10/04/chicago-public-schools-board-resigns-pedro-martinez-brandon-johnson/


CREDITS

Music: Carsie Blanton — https://carsieblanton.com

Artwork: Soumya Dhulekar — https://www.soumyadhulekar.com/

Request form: https://linktr.ee/budgetcommittee


Got a budget worth a closer look? Send us a district, a ballot question, or a board meeting and we’ll dig in.