* 8/21/25 - Dailyline - COFA mid-year report examines potential revenue, cost-saving ideas, current overtime and vacancy numbers (for City of Chicago budget) .....................
Buzz Sawyer
COFA mid-year report examines potential revenue, cost-saving ideas, current overtime and vacancy numbers
Chicago City Hall is pictured. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]
The City Council Office of Financial Analysis (COFA), the body tasked with independent analysis of the mayor’s proposed budget, proposed legislation and other fiscal matters, put out its own analysis of the city’s inaugural mid-year budget figures. It looked at potential ways for the city to save money and raise new funds while also evaluating recent city vacancies and overtime spending.
The Office of Budget and Management (OBM) mid-year report, which was mandated through legislation passed late last year as part of the 2025 budget process, allows members of the City Council and public to see how the city’s actual spending and revenue compares to what was projected at the outset of the year. The ordinance approved last year required both the city budget office and COFA to release mid-year reports.
The OBM report, released at the end of July, showed city revenue had come in stronger than anticipated and spending was down from projections.
The report showed that revenue collection was 4.9 percent higher than budgeted as of May 31. OBM reported the city had collected $1.64 billion in the first five months of the year, $77.2 million more than what was budgeted. Additionally, the city has controlled costs to save on contractual services and commodities and materials expenditures in the first five months of the year and spent 22 percent less on overtime costs when compared to the same period last year.
Related: Chicago’s revenues are up and spending is down, but budget gap still looms
As Chicago faces an extraordinary $1.1 billion estimated budget gap heading into the 2026 budgetmaking process, COFA’s independent analysis of the mid-year budget report suggested numerous potential ways to raise additional revenue or implement cost savings.
The suggestions in the report come both from ideas submitted by alderpeople as well as ideas generated through the COFA team’s own research. The suggestions presented with the most depth in the report fall within the city’s home rule authority and therefore would be legal for the city to institute on its own.
Some of the revenue ideas suggested include an increase in the city’s garbage collection fee, paid banner advertisements on city streetlights, a housing vacancy tax, increased towing and storage fees and the legalization of video gambling to opt in to receive some state tax revenue and charge local fees. The report also discusses the pending decision over whether to replace the expiring state grocery tax or lose tens of millions of dollars in local tax revenue the city currently receives.
Other ideas that would require state law changes or authorization are mentioned in the report but are not the focus, such as a state sales tax on services or a municipal income tax.
“While these options are valuable to explore as potential revenue sources for the City, they are unfeasible for FY 2026,” the report stated.
Related: City finance leaders make the case for progressive revenue structure at City Club event
Some of the cost-saving ideas in the report include a reduction in the minimum manning requirement for the Chicago Fire Department’s (CFD) fire suppression and rescue companies, a centralized city-managed towing system, a consolidation of the city’s four pension funds and the institution of a “transitional return-to-work program” for employees out on workers’ compensation who have recovered enough to work “in a limited or modified capacity” but would otherwise have to wait for full recovery to resume all their job responsibilities.
The COFA report, by ordinance, must also include an analysis of the city’s vacancies and overtime spending. The report showed the city carried over 2,419 vacant positions from Fiscal Year 2024 to the current fiscal year, meaning the same position was vacant at the beginning of both years.
The Chicago Police Department (CPD) had the highest number of carried over vacancies with 795 positions. The Department of Aviation carried over 272 vacant positions, the Department of Water Management carried over 226, CFD carried over 173 and the Department of Public Health carried over 134, according to the COFA report.
COFA did not complete a full analysis of the overtime spending through May, which OBM had reported stood at $142.1 million across all funds — down from $180.9 million during the same time period last year. COFA reported that through the data it reviewed, between January and March of this year the city spent more than $103.5 million on overtime.
However, COFA did complete an analysis of overtime spending for FY2024 and concluded multiple departments had “significant overspending.” CPD spent $273.6 million on overtime, exceeding its $105.8 million budget by $167.8 million. CFD exceeded its 2024 overtime budget by $43 million and the Department of Water Management exceeded it by more than $20 million.
The Department of Streets and Sanitation went $12.4 million over its 2024 overtime budget, the Department of Transportation exceeded its overtime budget by $9.6 million and the Department of Fleet and Facility Management ran $9.2 million over budget, according to COFA.
COFA said some of the relationships between the vacancy and overtime numbers are notable.
“The concentration of overtime costs and vacancy in public safety and operational roles demonstrates an interesting trend,” COFA wrote. “[CPD and CFD] carried significant unfilled positions into FY 2025 … while operational positions like Motor Truck Driver also showed high carryover counts. These patterns indicate that departments may be relying on overtime to maintain service coverage, using funds from vacant positions to meet staffing needs.”