Office of Budget and Management -BGA Policy 2025 Budget Snapshot

The Office of Budget and Management (OBM) is responsible for the administration of the city's budget.

Because OBM oversees the preparation of each department's budget, as well as the non-departmental "finance general" spending category, the OBM hearing is the best opportunity for City Council to ask questions regarding any parts of the budget that do not have a dedicated departmental hearing, which in this year's budget are:

• Finance General (non-departmental category)
• Office of the Mayor

The snapshot below is specific to OBM's budget as an operating department. BGA Policy has also prepared separate snapshots for Finance General and the Office of the Mayor.

Departmental Highlights

Snapshot: Appropriation & Staffing Changes from 2024 Budget

• Since the COVID-19 pandemic, OBM appropriations have included millions of dollars in federal relief funds. The overall departmental appropriation continues to decline dramatically as funding tapers off.
  
• $2.6 million in outside contracting (the professional and technical services appropriation account) remains the department's largest non-personnel expense, despite an -86.1% reduction from 2024's appropriation.
  
• A new ARPA dashboard is available through OBM's website to track pandemic relief fund spending in detail.

Historical Context

Year-over-year comparisons of OBM's recent budgets are distorted by federal pandemic funding. As pandemic relief took shape during the latter half of 2020 onwards, OBM acted as the operating department for the Chicago Rescue Plan, taking budgetary responsibility for billions of dollars in pass-through and third-party spending.

The city's distribution of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds is now tracked in considerably more detail at a dedicated ARPA dashboard provided by OBM. Removing the outlier pandemic years of 2020-2023 can provide a more to-scale illustration of OBM's regular operational funding changes since 2011:

Prior to the pandemic, OBM's annual appropriation had been declining since a 2015 high of $28.5 million. While the OBM budget continues to include COVID-19 relief funding ($18.7 million in 2024's budget and $12.9 million in this year's), the departmental appropriation is rapidly declining towards its pre-pandemic norms.

Staffing

Overall budgeted headcount at OBM is down three positions from the previous year in the proposed budget. Some positions were eliminated entirely, including the Director of Information Systems and Financial Manager - TIF titles, while a number of other positions underwent retitling (Senior Budget Analyst to Senior Financial Analyst, for example.)

Appropriations

Largest Appropriations

OBM's appropriations are largely staffing-related, with salaries and wages on payroll the largest appropriation apart from the reserve balance appropriation included in this year's budget. This appropriation was not used in the previous year's budget. Better Government Association has reached out to the Office of Budget and Management for clarification of this appropriation's purpose and has not yet received a reply.

The department's $2.6 million contracting budget under the professional and technical services appropriation account is down -86.1% from 2024's budgeted $18.6 million, but remains the largest non-staffing expense.

Change from Previous Year

The 2025 budget document lists a negative value for 2024's delegate agencies appropriation, even though the 2024 budget dataset (final, not proposed) lists a $3,918,119 delegate agencies appropriation for OBM. The office has not responded to a request for clarification from BGA Policy.

Apart from a slight increase in budgeted wages and salaries, OBM's budget has been reduced in all other appropriation accounts, with the largest cuts to the professional and technical services category used for outside contracting.

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