The city needs to "bite the bullet" and deal with its pension crisis, Pawar said at budget town hall. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Patty Wetli

NORTH CENTER — Discussion at the first of two 47th Ward budget town hall meetings focused as much on what's missing from the city's 2015 fiscal plan as what's included.

Namely the absence of a property tax increase to address Chicago's looming pension crisis.

Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th) said he argued to "raise the taxes before the election and let the chips fall."

"We should have been making really tough decisions in 2000, 2001, 2002 ...," Pawar told constituents gathered on Thursday at the North Center Senior Satellite Campus. "At some point we're going to have to bite the bullet."

The $8.9 billion 2015 budget includes nearly $560 million for pension payments, a figure that will balloon to $1 billion in 2016, according to the alderman.

"There is no magic pot of money" a la the parking meter deal to dig the city out of that hole, and budget cuts have already reduced departments like Streets and Sanitation to "muscle and bone," said Pawar.

Despite a recent uptick in "economically sensitive revenue" sources like real estate transactions and the hotel/amusement tax, increased property taxes and perhaps the institution of a progressive state income tax are inevitable, he said.

"I don't know when it became an American ideal to not pay taxes," said Pawar, in reference to the state's current flat income tax.

Despite the establishment of an independent budget office (technically the City Council Office of Financial Analysis) in 2013 — intended to advise aldermen on financial matters — City Council had zero input on the creation of the 2015 budget, Pawar said.

The seven-member committee assigned to hire the director of the budget office is at a stalemate, said the alderman, who was one of the lead sponsors of the ordinance that created the office.

Eighty candidates applied for the job and the committee interviewed a dozen for the post, but "I can't get four people to agree" on who to hire, Pawar said.

"I'm going to keep plugging away," he said.

Though the Chicago Transit Authority's budget is separate from the city's, the CTA's elimination of the No. 11 Lincoln Avenue bus — and finding ways to fund its return — was another hot topic at the town hall.

"We've tried closed-door meetings. They dug in," Pawar said of negotiations. "My guess is ... if they overturn their decision ... everyone in the city will want their bus back. I wish I had a better answer for you. I'm not Forrest Claypool."

The alderman said he planned to attend the CTA's budget meeting on Nov. 17 and encouraged residents to join him.

"We're out there shouting and being loud," said Pawar. "It's infuriating to think they're not listening to us."

A second budget town hall will be held at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 5 at the Ravenswood United Church of Christ, 2050 W. Pensacola Ave.