46th Ward Budgeting Ideas

Ald. Cappleman's weekly newsletter covered the 46th Ward Budget Town Hall Meeting that took place on Wednesday:

"Thanks to all the people who gave their ideas to help the City of Chicago address its budget crisis. I want to especially thank Temple Shalom for so graciously offering their synagogue last Wednesday as a gathering place for residents to share their ideas.

Many of you emailed your ideas to us and it was interesting to note that many of those ideas were repeated at our public meeting. Some of these ideas might not save a large amount of money, but together, they can all make a real dent with helping us create a budget that's more fiscally responsible.

Here were just a few of the ideas that have been presented:

• Create incentives for City employees to come up with ideas to save money.
• Have licenses for bicycles to increase revenue and have a license plate that will make it easier to ticket the bicycle.
• Establish a Chicago casino.
• Create movable solar panels to power street lights.
• Legalize marijuana and tax it.
• Enforce current laws (dogs off leash, no snow shoveling, littering) which will generate more revenue.
• Increase the fees for street festivals
• Use crowdsharing to pay for large projects that benefit the public.
• Have citizen-led efficiency and watchdog groups.
• Reduce the number of aldermen by half.
• Reduce the number of Streets & San staff on garbage trucks.
• Utilize means testing for senior discounts.
• Use TIF funds to reduce the budget deficit
• Bring down the costs of hiring police officers by relying on them mainly to address crime and have other staff with responsibilities of only ticketing.

We will be putting all of these ideas together and I'll be presenting them to the Mayor's Office. If you have more ideas, please keep sending them our way via email at info@james46.org. Thanks again!"