Last week, the Mayor’s Office released its proposed 2026 budget for the City, with projected allocations for all departments including Chicago Public Library. There ARE some good things in this budget. It proposes corporate head and social media taxes, along with a designation of TIF surpluses, in line with the progressive revenue platform endorsed by Local 1215 members. All of these new revenue sources would help CPL maintain service levels to some extent.
Unfortunately, the proposed budget still slashes our book budget in half, and it includes major cuts to our staffing (see chart below). These are serious cuts that will deteriorate the services and resources CPL staff can provide to our patrons.
Business leaders are currently gearing up to squash the corporate head tax, while our libraries are barely staying afloat. Year after year our budget has largely stayed flat, meaning we aren’t keeping up with inflation and our services and staffing levels continue to deteriorate.
We know from past budget hearings that CPL management will not advocate for our patrons and ask City Council and the Mayor to adequately fund and staff our libraries, despite the consequences. Our City Council members, meanwhile, may be tempted to cave to business interests, even though it will mean worse services and resources for library patrons. Our city and our libraries desperately need new, progressive sources of revenue, and we don’t want to see our patrons’, friends’, and neighbors’ households bearing the brunt of those increases–which is likely to happen if big businesses don’t pay their fair share.
As we gear up to action during this year’s budget season, we’ll be keeping Local 1215 members updated on who our allies in City Council are, and which alders are truly taking the actions needed to support a fully funded CPL.
In the meantime, here are some key details to know:
- 🚩The proposed budget for FY26 recommends a decrease in total appropriations for CPL year over year, dropping from $109.3 million to $107.2 million.
- 🚩The budget cuts the library’s funding for buying books and materials by 50%, from $10 million to $5 million in FY26. (See “Recommendations,” page 182)
- 🚩The budget recommends a net decrease of approximately ~89 Local 1215 positions at Chicago Public Library (i.e., 40 annual, ~49 part time), across all funds and position types. Increases/decreases are recorded below:
