Budget Making in Chicago

Appropriations for public expenditure in the city of Chicago are made by the city council with the approval of the mayor. The mayor has also a veto power over specific items contained in the appropriation bills. This veto may be overidden by a two-thirds vote. Furthermore, the statute requires that the annual appropriation bill shall be passed during the first quarter of the fiscal year. Preliminary estimates of departmental needs for the ensuing year are presented to the controller on blanks prepared and sent out by him for this purpose. These estimates are received by the comptroller, revised and transmitted by him to the finance committee of the council. This body is composed of fifteen members appointed by the council itself. The chairman receives a salary of five thousand dollars a year and devotes the greater part of his time to the duties of this office. The finance committee, after a series of sessions covering ordinarily a period of about two months, recommends a budget to the entire council. During this period, hearings are held at which heads of departments, bureaus, city employees and interested citizens appear and present arguments. The budget transmitted to the council by the finance committee is considered by the council in committee of the whole and then by the council in regular session. In recent years the budget has been passed practically as recommended by the finance committee, although some additions are usually made by log-rolling methods. And in the last two years, budget increases have been made following the veto of the mayor upon items which he regarded as insufficient for departmental purposes. In the main, however, the budget passed is substantially the budget of the finance committee. In 1911 a log-rolling campaign increased the committee's budget by nearly two million dollars, but on the final vote, the overloaded budget failed to secure the necessary number of votes for passage, and consequently the whole budget was re-referred to the 270

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• Rethinking Budgeting? An Analysis of Budget Theory and Reform for Modernizing Municipal Practice

  Open Access•Emily A Boykin, Clifford P Mccue et al.•Public Administration Review•2026

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