Engineers may seal the leak, but there is no plug big enough to stop the torrent of money sluicing into the hole at the bottom of the Chicago River.
The Loop disaster could well drain away public services and rupture state, city and county budgets, ruining politicians` dreams of holding down taxes while building such things as new airports and casino parlors.
As cleanup costs mount into the billions, Chicago and Illinois officials already struggling with strained budgets are wondering where they`ll get the money to pay for the Great Chicago Flood.
All agree that the ultimate price to Illinois residents of what could have been a $10,000 patch job in an ancient, little-used tunnel is, at this point, unfathomable.
Count on more than $1 billion in damage to businesses. More than $500 million in lost productivity to the state`s financial engine. Not to mention lost sales and income tax revenue to pay for human services and
transportation.
And all that on top of the runaway emergency cleanup costs, which weary officials have hardly had time to stop and calculate.
”Obviously, this one is going to be expensive,” said Robert Blair, a Federal Emergency Management Agency official sent to the scene from Washington, D.C. ”Any figures you throw out, I`m just going to have to say that I don`t know.”
Yet to be considered is the possibility of costly reconstruction projects under the city to make sure something like this never happens again, as Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has vowed.
And some fear the costs could spill onto property tax bills, even in the high-and-dry suburbs, especially if Loop building owners erode Cook County`s tax base by demanding lower assessments because of water damage.
The disaster comes at a time when the state, city, county and Chicago Transportation Authority have been squeezed by recession, low tax revenues and rocketing service costs. All have been talking about severe budget cuts or tax increases, or both. Now budget officials fear a flood of red ink.
Federal Emergency Management Agency officials say they will pick up 75 percent of cleanup costs, but that leaves city and state officials dickering over who pays the remaining 25 percent, and each is anxious to pass along as much of the tab as possible.
Gov. Jim Edgar, who has proposed a spartan budget for 1993 that will attempt to patch a $1.4 billion deficit, made it clear that the city should not be looking to Springfield for much more than moral support.
His aides insist the costs to the state will be nothing compared to the city`s, firmly implying that the costs of the disaster, which wasn`t exactly an act of God, should fall on those to blame.
”The state is in no position to offer any financial aid at this time,”
said Edgar, as a grim Daley looked on at a press conference in which Chicago was declared a disaster area.
More Top Picks Best Chainsaws
Edgar`s administration, which will channel all federal help to the city, has pushed for a written agreement guaranteeing that the city will pick up its share of the cost. But city and state officials were working closely late last week to figure out how to squeeze as much as possible out of the federal government.
The financial headache will linger in Chicago for years, most agree.
The issue of eventual legal liability is far down the road, but already, three class action suits have been filed against the city, the firm that planted the pilings and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. The plaintiffs include a restaurant hostess and a psychotherapist.
Two weeks ago, Karen Danczak Lyons, Chicago`s budget director, stood at a lectern in Mayor Richard Daley`s conference room, dressed in a proper business suit and a black string tie, publicly worrying about a $25 million hole that Edgar had just popped into the city`s $3.25 billion budget by claiming the city`s share of income tax surcharge revenue.
But last Wednesday, Danczak Lyons, now wearing faded jeans and a pink turtleneck sweater, stood on a stairwell just outside that office and informally chatted with reporters about what a difference a week makes.
That $25 million-plus hole, which might force the layoffs of up to 1,700 city employees on top of the 800 who were let go in Daley`s 1992 budget on Jan. 1, now looks like a pinprick next to the cost of the flood.
The city`s budget always builds in some money to cover the usual emergencies, such as big snowstorms or unexpected problems with the sagging infrastructure, but Danczak Lyons said last week that there is no fund big enough to handle a crisis as immense as the subterranean flood.
Even though Chicago has been relatively free of major snow removal costs this year because of a mild winter, the so-called ”snow dividend” will in no way be enough to cover flood costs. And it would not be a smart move to use the snow removal budget so early in the city`s calendar fiscal year because it has been known to snow in Chicago in October, November and December.
The last time such a costly disaster hit Chicago was in 1979, when almost eight feet of snow dropped on the city. When that was all over, it was estimated that the cost to the city was about $75 million.
Then Mayor Michael Bilandic and his financial aides did some financial wizardry and tapped into federal community development grants to buy more snowplows and cover some overtime payments, but it still gave the city a budget deficit that Mayor Jane Byrne was forced to close with a wave of new taxes.
That $75 million price tag, which probably was low, is expected to be a bargain basement cost next to the expected flood costs on the horizon.
The disaster will also dwarf the damage of the 1987 Des Plaines River flood, which caused $100 million in harm to private homes and another $50 million to public facilities. Most of that cost was covered by insurance and the federal government, but as a result, Du Page County residents are now paying a portion of their property taxes for stormwater control.
Without even considering the immense costs of the actual flood fighting being done by private contractors enlisted by the city, the manpower costs to the city workforce will be overwhelming.
Thousands of city workers were out in the field, working around the clock on flood duty. Most of the city`s 40,000 employees are unionized, which means they will be paid time-and-a-half and double-time wages.
CTA officials expect to be hit with at least $20 million in repairs to the State Street and Dearborn Street subways, in addition to the $500,000 to $600,000 a day they`re spending for such things as overtime wages.
Already expected to announce service cuts later this year due to a budget shortfall, CTA officials say they`re keeping track of every nickel so they can try to offset it with federal relief.
The state`s share of emergency costs may compete in the General Assembly this spring with public aid and other human service programs that lawmakers are trying to protect from Edgar`s budget knife.
Daley may also be in Springfield seeking authority to float bonds to patch up the city`s leaky infrastructure.
That could push his already-pending requests for approval of the airport and casino plans to the back burner, while offering pork-minded Downstate legislators an opportunity to demand their own costly waterworks projects.