Emanuel [Rahm Israel Emanuel is current Mayor of Chicago] simply calls his philosophy “cut and invest.” The cuts are coming from long-padded city departments and are going to pay for more cops on the beat, longer school days and modernized subway stations — all designed to create more incentives for companies to create jobs in Chicago.
He expanded all-day kindergarten for 6,000 more kids by cutting $400 million out of the schools’ bureaucracy. To get more cops on the streets, he shifted 600 police from desk jobs to walking beats. To spruce up subway stations, he cut 200 positions out of his transportation department.
But besides cut and invest, Emanuel also has to raise revenue, without broadly raising taxes, to cover a $636 million operating deficit. He wants to charge hospitals and other nonprofits for city water, impose a congestion surcharge of $2 for parking downtown and raise fees for drunken driving. Every source of revenue has to be tapped.
"— NYT: A Progressive in the Age of Austerity by Thomas L. Friedman
