Creative Thinking In Chicago

When it comes to municipal penny pinching, the Second City is full of firsts. Money is so tight in Chicago that city officials, facing a $220 million budget shortfall for 2005, are breaking new revenue-collecting ground. Last week the city's department of cultural affairs launched a two-week "Great Chicago Fire Sale," hoping to raise at least $250,000 for its financially strapped arts programs via an eBay auction of Windy City items, including an original Playboy-bunny costume, lunch with Oprah's decorator and a chance to dye the Chicago River green on St. Patrick's Day.

And that's just the start. Over the past year, the city has hounded dog owners to buy pet licenses, dispatched investigators to public garages in search of registration-sticker scofflaws and agreed to lease its Chicago Skyway toll road to a private company for $1.83 billion over 99 years.

Critics say the city is suffering from mismanagement and from the cost of Mayor Richard Daley's pet projects, among them the recently completed $475 million Millennium Park. "We don't want to cut services or raise property taxes. That's political suicide," says city alderman Ricardo Muñoz. "So the tighter the budget gets, the more creative we get." The latest budget draft hikes the sales tax from 8.75% to 9%, the highest among big U.S. cities. And Daley has backed an idea to fine people caught with small amounts of marijuana instead of arresting them — proof once again that during belt-tightening season, politicians will leave no stone (or stoner) unturned.