Chicago Teachers Union ‘likely’ to strike — because property tax hike isn’t big enough

CHICAGO – Chicago Public Schools approved a $5.4 billion budget for next school year that relies on three property tax hikes for local residents, but teachers union officials contend it’s not enough.

The budget will increase the district’s regular property tax levy to the maximum allowed under state law, a CPS tradition for the last two decades. But district officials also plan to tax residents specifically for capital improvements, and will impose a new tax to pump an estimated $250 million into teacher pensions, the Chicago Tribune reports.

According to the site:

CPS officials say the district’s total tax increases would cost the owner of a $250,000 home an extra $245.

The CPS tax hikes represent the latest financial pain city government has inflicted. Homeowners this month started feeling the effect of last year’s record city property tax hike to shore up police and fire pensions, a $554 annual increase for the owner of a $250,000 home that’s being phased in over four years.

The additional taxes are on top of a new $1.40 a month fee for cell phone users and landlines to pay city laborers’ pensions, as well as a proposed water and sewer tax that would increase the cost for an average user by $115.20 a year to fund a city municipal workers’ pension fund. That fee would come after the city recently doubled water and sewer rates and added a $9.50 a month garbage fee, the Tribune reports.

The “balanced” CPS budget also relies on about $30 million in concessions from the Chicago Teachers Union during the ongoing contract negotiations with the district, something union officials seem unwilling to accept, ABC 7 reports.

Union officials have threatened to walk out on students if the district pushes forward with the concessions. The CTU’s Contract Bulletin #14, sent out August 22, calls on members to prepare for a “likely” strike in mid-October.

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