Lightfoot's 2020 budget requires CPS repay $60 million for pensions, $33 million for security

At a time when union leaders claim another $38 million could end the teachers strike, Mayor Lori Lightfoot's 2020 budget requires the Chicago Public Schools to reimburse the city for $60 million in pension contributions previously covered by City Hall.

The historic about-face is buried in the mayor's budget overview.

It states, "In 2020, an additional $60 million is expected from Chicago Public Schools to cover a portion of its share of the city's annual contribution to the Municipal Employees' Annuity and Benefit Fund."

For years, City Hall has covered the school system's annual contribution to the largest of four city employee pension funds.

This year, Lightfoot needs the money to chip away at the city's $838 million shortfall triggered, in part, by the city's own rising pension payments.

And, according to a Chicago Teachers Union official, Lightfoot also wants CPS to repay the city for $33 million in security costs.

The $60 million pension reimbursement that would essentially claw back nearly 37 percent of the $163 million she is forwarding to CPS after declaring the largest tax-increment-financing (TIF) surplus in Chicago history.

"CPS is the only sister agency that the city subsidizes by way of pension contributions. Every other sister agency pays its own fair share," Chief Financial Officer Jennie Huang Bennett told the Sun-Times.

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