candidate in the race -- has invited the leading candidate in the race, rahm emanuel, the former chief of the top four candidates for mayor, city did i in no particular order ron emmannuel, gery chico, miguel deval, carol moseley braun. welcome, everyone. the format we have all agreed to is quite casual. there are no time limits. bruce and i will cut you off if needed so everyone has time to be heard on the topic. we encourage you to question and respond to each other. it should keep the evening quite likely. the debate is just under one hour. we will start with some big issues are city is facing. bruce as the first question. >> just a couple of hours ago the illinois supreme court ruled that mr. emmannuel would it remain on the ballot. is that the right ruling? >> i am a lawyer and a former prosecutor. i do not question the ruling of the courts. the ruling stands. the fact is that the field has not spent -- has not changed. we are still in this and are trying to get our message out. i want to talk about job creation in chicago, getting our schools fixed -- i am talking about the issues that affect real chicagoans. >> mr. gigot, is this a distraction to the campaign? >> no. i am not challenged anyone in my career, including rahm. i am had been privileged to serve as chief of staff for the mayor, president of the school board where we brought our schools but from the brink, parts' chairman or rebuilt parts for our -- where -- parks chairman where we built parks for our children. i will not do what ron emmannuel has done which is proposed the single largest sales tax -- >> do you think politics was at play in the appellate court decision? >> the good news is now that we have the supreme court decision, it is final. a flea this will be the last question for all of us about it. that decision is -- i have always said that the voters will make the decision on who will be the next mayor. i think that what is facing the city is a real debate not about my presidency but about what the residents of the city of chicago care about which is our schools, our streets, and our economic finances so we can attract businesses rather than seeing companies leave. we can keep those corporate residents appear in the city of chicago. >> we are going to talk about a lot of great ideas you all have over the next hour. none of them will get done at the city does not resolve its financial crisis. we are looking at more than $15 billion in underfunded pension obligations. the city has got to more than $1 billion in just a few years in a parking meter money. we have debts on top of the pension obligations. how are you going to answer this crisis? will you find cuts or will you raise revenue? >> we have to begin by looking at the entire budget. we know there is waste, fraud, inefficiencies in this city's budget. we need to look at each department. we need to conduct audits. the popular term is a "forensic audit." we have to look at each line line by line and immediately began to cut back those deputies that report to the deputies, those patriot's petitions that have existed in the city of chicago that are protected by the aldermen and other folks -- we have to send a small -- a strong message to the voters that we are going to reform government and we are going to start by getting our fiscal policy in order. that means collecting all of those unpaid waterville's because someone knows someone who works at sit -- water bills because someone knows someone who works at city hall and do not pay their water bills. we will take the surplus dollars in tip money that should have been going to the district in the first place. we created to meet debt districts in the city of chicago. we have to change the way we pick up garbage, change it to a grid system. we are going to have to patch together a budget to get us to this difficult time. there is more than $1 billion in revenue that we had in 2007 when the recession started. we will get that revenue back as the economy improves. there is a lot of sacrifice that has to be made. it has to be made by those who have been able to get by because of their political connections and because of the big fat contracts they got from city hall. contractors will have to reduce their costs. a lot of pain for a lot of people will be necessary. >> the city will have to come up with a five under $50 million property tax increase just debate -- $550 million property- tax increase. >> we will have to go back to the general assembly and get a amendment to that all that will allow us to wrap up over a period of years. the property tax is the most unfair tax that we have. >> even if you run to the legislation, you still have the obligation. >> i was just getting to the other part. if we are able to get dollars for the employer contribution, i am, that we get the unions back to the table to talk about increasing the employee contribution. i, as an employee, will not agree to that unless my employer contributes to that fund. >> we have budget problems and issues to resolve, but i would not go so far as to call a crisis. that panics people. we have to do several things. we have to grow the economy, balanced growth, take into account job creation in the neighborhoods, not just downtown. we have to use what we have -- we have to put what we have to better use. use the efficiencies in the way city government operates. if we modernize some of the back office functions, it is estimated we could save almost $80 million just by doing that. then there is what professor simpson talked about as the " corruption taxpayer "it is $50 million a year that goes to kick to the commissioner and talk to another deputy. it is difficult for small businesses to get started in chicago. if we roll out the red carpet to them, it makes it easier for them to get started. we can give the medium-sized business is the kind of support they need. we have great assets here. we have all kinds of assets we can bring to bear to help stimulate the growth. continued growth, innovation, and exporting from the city -- we can rise from the ashes of this recession. >> i believe this. i am the only person on this panel this evening that as but a municipal budget together. i have but 16 of them together. each and everyone has a surplus. there is no doubt you have to overhaul the city government operations. you got to have a plan first. we have excess of management in our cd system that has to be eliminated. we have -- we have access management i get are city system that has to be eliminated. the city clerk's office has become irrelevant. in addition to a number of cuts we will have to make as reshaping downsize the budget, we will have to adopt best practices. propped bill pay debt. right now, we do not pay our bills on time and it cost us money. you have to grow new entrepreneurial sources of revenue. i have talked about advertising. bring the 14,000 lots the city owns that pay no taxes back under the tax rolls. i will not tax people and get a whole new way as mr. emanuel has suggested. we are talking about imposing a sales tax on barbers, child care, car washes, you name it. >> let me answer your first question. i believe you have to go to the budget and asked of the metal question -- and as the fundamental questions. i propose we spend $500 million on health care in the city. a comprehensive wellness plan white the private sector. if you centralized procurement across all functions -- the corporate fund as well as the other funds and centralize it, $40 million -- $40 million in savings. i have laid out specific ideas addressing exactly that to make these statements and change the way you do business in the city government. also, residents pay water bills, businesses pay, the nonprofits do not pay. they do not have to pay the same rate, but didn't we subsidize them in the tax code, they can also pay to make up the difference. those are specific ideas with specific numbers on how to solve that problem. >> you were opposed to taxing the nonprofits in the editorial building. >> no, not at all. i was the first candidate to say no to taxes, number one. as for the nonprofits, the water and sewer subsidies we currently provide is one that does not make sense anymore. i think we should end the subsidies. >> she did in the editorial board agree on that point the that right now residents pay, small businesses play, nonprofits do not, and that is not fair. it is not the same rate, but there is a big hole there. i had the same issue on sales tax. i propose a 20% reduction in sales tax. we have the highest sales tax in the city. i do not think it is fair for a single mother with two kids who is trying to buy school supplies to pay higher sales tax to people probably do not pay. people who rent a limousine do not pay. i think a single mother or a family buying school supplies should pay less and the retail merchants will report a 24% reduction in tells tax. it will provide $200 for working families while -- i think a 20% sales tax cut for the city with the highest sales tax in the country, it is time to give working families a 20% cut in the sales tax. >> it is not a 20% cut. it makes no sense to call this a luxury tax if the way it is described right now as far as i understand it is to charge the same single mother for child care. to charge the same single mother to take your pet to the grimmer to get clipped -- 9% more. i do not understand it. >> can i say one thing? when we were at the wttw, you said you're for cutting sales tax. here, you're taking a deposition. that's ok. i proposed exactly how to do it. a 20% cut in sales tax, because i think a working mother should not been paying more than a person who rents a limousine or a corporate jet. >> here is a place we will have to spend a lot of money. discuss how to get rid of crime in the city. >> if i may, it is not just a matter of taxes. it is a matter of fees as well. we pay more to park in downtown chicago then they pay in manhattan. we are faced with giving away the right to collect those revenues for the next 25 years. i think that -- first, no new taxes. take a look at how the policy decisions that have been made before and correcting some of that can move the city in the direction of balanced growth so that making men and women can be encouraged to stay in chicago, refit -- -- rick locate here to the city. >> you're saying you would reverse the parking meters? >> absolutely. it was a bad deal for chicago in every way. they -- the city sold $100 million. that is what the inspector general was worth $3 billion to $5 billion. i think we need to renegotiate its, bring the parties to the table. there have been two lawsuits. if we do have to pay it back, we will have the benefit of the revenue coming to the city. right now, it is revenue from the parking meet -- right now, the revenue from the parking meters do not come to the city. >> there has been a very oppressive climate created in the city of chicago as a result of all the fees, tickets, red light cameras, and the parking meter deal. there is a need to review the entire revenue structure in the city of chicago and to make modifications. we give people big issues over two tickets. we need to collect our revenue, but it is time for us to be sensitive to what is happening in the neighborhoods where people have had it up to here with the city. it is time for us to do a total revamping of the revenue structure. that means all the fees, all the fines -- and come up with something that makes sense that allows us to be able to implement our walls, but not in an impressive -- not in an aggressive way. we see people coming into the clerk of this -- office with a hardship cases and we give them the cold shoulder in the city of chicago. we need to be more sensitive while at the same time making sure we watched that bottom line. we cannot continue to stand and raise revenue on the backs of the middle class who are trying to survive. it is tough out there. because it is tough out there, government has to change. >> miguel is right. people feel nickeled and dined on the taxes and fees across the city. i have proposed a 20% reduction in the sales tax for the city. i have also proposed eliminating the employee a head tax. the number-one reason some plants are not competitive is because of the head tax. i have also opposed the way we tax natural gas and utilities. the fact is, people across the city filled nickeled and din med. we can provide sensible and balanced tax cuts for the working families. it will help companies and people -- help companies add people. >> an elegy modified the chicago police department? mr. -- >> was to put more officers on the -- mr. chico wants to put more officers on the street. >> i think the number one issue on the minds of people is public safety, without a doubt. yesterday i proposed a crime and safety plan. standing with me was a woman by the name of gloria patron. she had lost her 13-year-old son to gang fire. she was struck six years later. i promised her i would do everything in my power to bring the right amount of police to our city so per side -- so her son or any other child would not have to get through that again. in 1993 we brought 1000 police officers onto the force. i think i am the only person who brought officers to the force. >> you cannot take credit for what mayor daley did. >> i recommended it. we let our manpower drop down to a point that is dangerously low right now. we have ravaged our caps program. we are using one-man cars. we are not able to have the right amount of foot-patrols. we can hire 2000 police officers i get a budget of $6.50 billion. that amounts to about 2.5% to 3%. anyone who cannot modify a city budget to come up with 2000 police officers, which is the number-one issue for people in the city, should not be mayor. >> i helped president clinton passed the assault weapon ban -- the brady bill. the simple strategy for 1994 which was novel than about putting more police on the streets and getting guns off the streets. i know how to find 1000 additional officers. second, a comprehensive after- school program. two-thirds of juvenile violence occurs between the hours of 3:00 and 6:00. we have to prosecute the gun laws we have on the books. i think jerry reese needs to go. the philosophy should not be about adding more bureaucrats to the central office. it is about understanding the beat officers are the backbone of the police department. my father was a police officer for 25 years in the city of chicago. all but also like to know it that the after-school program is essential. i was down on the south side pd i was preaching -- on the sell side. i was greeting visitors. a young man stopped me and said, ", like to show you something." people out a contract. he said, "i started my own after school con -- after-school program. the parents sign a contract involving them in our academic life." that is the academic approach we should be taking. >> this is not just about adding more police officers. it is about building communities. you do not build communities with a program here and a program there. you build communities by addressing the issues that are confronting them on a day-to-day basis like unemployment and the lack of a quality education. we need community learning centers at each school, which is what i have opposed, where the entire family is engaged in learning and building communities. when the school because the anchor of the neighborhood, small businesses are developed. we still have small businesses that cannot get started because they are waiting for the city council to approve a permit. that takes two months. you can have a three-point plan or a four-point plan, but if you are not organizing committees said that they become strong communities, you will continue to have public safety problems due out the city of chicago. we are not headed in the right direction right now. >> my brother is a police officer as were my uncle and my father. i was a former federal prosecutor myself. law enforcement cannot just the top down, it has to be bottom up. you have to do with prevention. -- you have to deal with prevention. i have unfortunately have to take the blame for the three strikes and you're out. if all enforcement -- what we have now is a dearth of attention to prevention. a lot of these young people are hanging out on street corners in getting into trouble. my grandmother used to say, "i do not like the devil's workshop." we are not giving these kids anything to look forward to. they do not have music and physical education in the schools. that gives rise to the sky high dropout rate we have in our city. they also do not have jobs to look forward to when they leave school. >> the chicago unemployment rate is 9.5%, much higher in some neighborhoods. when wal-mart wanted to bring jobs into the city, the city council existed and block the expansion of wal-mart. >> the answer comes not with the giants like wal-mart, but with dr. been worse. if we encourage entrepreneurship in the communities to create jobs these young people can take, wheat will be able to adjust the balance growth issue for our city as well as give young people opportunities. if the giants want to come in, they should come in. you cannot have people working for less than minimum wage and expect to have the help the city. it costs $5 an hour to park at the movies. it is $4.50 to take the bus to go somewhere. people have expenses that the less than minimum wage will not cover. we cannot have a tale of two cities. we have to have a city that works for everybody. that means job creation, focusing on neighborhoods, focusing on under a partnership and innovation. >> i think you -- i think to become a small business friendly city, we have to concentrate on job creation. we have not released that created an entrepreneur will spirit that can lead to innovation, that leads to the development of new products, and can happen because chicago has done that before. our history shows that. we do not have that kind of climate in the city of chicago. what we talk about? changing the residency rules that allow police officers, firemen, and teachers to live outside the city of chicago. we are training the city of the middle class that is needed to provide balance and economic growth throughout the city of chicago. we need our role models in our neighborhoods for our kids. we need teachers. we need firemen. we need police officers. we the city employees. we needed to keep their tax dollars here. the contract dollars are paying their salary. >> i think after 40 years we may entertain the topic of residency in the city. i think the city is strong enough to do that. i am not worry about losing the middle class. this is something that rahm and i can talk about. the issue of jobs is absolutely critical. i was at a press conference yesterday in a small coffee shop with three people. right next to it was a sandwich shop with five people working in it. that is a jobs. 80% of business in chicago are small businesses. just this morning, i was with a group of hardware store owners. there was a guy he wanted to open a new hardware store on the north side of the city. he was waiting one year for permits. that is unacceptable. that is outrageous. we can change this. i put forward a jobs plan that calls for a recent court -- we orientation a city hall to get it behind businesses that want to expand. we are losing opportunity after opportunity. we have 14,000 parcels of land in this city that they never taxes. we should give those away if necessary to bring companies and jobs on to those parcels. we need to write down the rest for a short period of time to bring people to these abandoned storefronts, picks them up, and give small businesses going again. it is important to realize that a 3, 4, 5, or 10-person company really defines what chicago is. >> within the first two months if