Teachers To Emanuel, Rauner: 'Not One More Cent In Cuts'
CHICAGO (CBS) -- As Mayor Rahm Emanuel called on Governor Bruce Rauner and state lawmakers to provide more money for the Chicago Public Schools, teachers at a meeting on the South Side said the mayor has done little to help matters.
Chicago Teachers Union organizer Matthew Luskin told the more than 100 teachers who attended a summit at the National Teachers Academy at 55 W. Cermak Rd. the mayor has sat on his hands, and has chosen to make cuts at CPS, when efforts should have been made to increase revenue.
Luskin said none of the five proposals that surfaced this spring in the Illinois General Assembly to fund public schools across the state would have been sufficient.
"This is what we believe is actually needed; around $1 billion. This is what they have said to the union in the past. This is what they've said to the press in the past. You know what, even if they're exaggerating these numbers to try to raise a scare, this really is the type of money we need, because we don't want to just protect last year's cuts, we want to improve our schools," he said.
One page in the PowerPoint presentations at Saturday's summit bore the title "Not one more cent in cuts." Speakers from the union's staff and teachers said revenue-raising is a must, but said the mayor won't even entertain those proposed by the union, such as a financial transaction tax or so-called "millionaires' tax."
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It frustrates veteran teacher Monique Redeaux-Smith, who said the only ones who appear to be benefiting from the teachers' labors are rich Chicagoans who could afford to pay more in taxes, but don't.
"We are tired of doing more with less. We are tired of constantly having to give and give and give more; while the people who have it to give don't give anything, and yet are able to rake in all the benefits from our labors," she said.
She said the mayor and governor have many options to close the gap, but have chosen the one that hurts the most:
"They came to us with nothing but proposals for cuts; nothing but proposals for cuts, cuts that would come from teachers, teachers who have already been doing so much more with less," she said.
A long-time school employee, Darlene Winston, said bitterly that what she has learned from Rauner is that she works in a "crumbling prison" and said Rauner knows only how to cut.
Luskin said the mayor, the governor, and legislators have ignored an entire package of ideas that could have narrowed or eliminated the schools' budget hole. Last month, CTU unveiled a list of roughly $500 million in taxes to boost funding for CPS.
The proposed measures included $94 million from reinstating and vastly increasing the city's head tax, which Emanuel phased out after he first took office in 2011; $98 million from tripling the city's gasoline tax; $15 million from a new tax on ride-hailing services like Uber; $35 million from an increased tax on rental cars; and $100 million from automatically assessing the valuation of commercial properties at 25 percent of the sale price when calculating their property taxes.
CTU also wants to release an additional $100 million in surplus tax increment financing money, establish a new special service area to raise $100 million a year in new property tax revenue for the schools, and shift to CPS the $1.2 billion in borrowing Emanuel wanted to use for his proposed McCormick Place compromise on the Lucas Museum project.
CTU also has long pressed for a graduated income tax that would raise rates on the wealthiest taxpayers in Illinois, but such proposals would require amending the Illinois Constitution, and efforts to do so have not gained any traction in Springfield.
