The Chicago Remodel Fund is a permanent, voter-approved line on the property tax. It pays for programs that help families stay in their neighborhoods, such as mental health care, crisis teams and help staying housed, and it rebuilds neighborhoods block by block, from the pipes up. Together with the River Crossing Fee, a toll that non-residents pay to drive across the Chicago River, it puts more than $1 billion a year into Chicago's neighborhoods. It costs the median homeowner about $1.75 a day, or $53 a month. Homeowners who live in their homes and earn below an income line get a rebate.
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PART OF THE NEW BURNHAM PLAN
DESIGN
Chicago Remodel Fund
Your neighborhood gets rebuilt from the pipes up, and the programs that keep families in it are funded for good.
The Chicago Remodel Fund is a permanent line on the property tax set aside for neighborhoods, so these programs stop losing the budget fight every year. It costs the median homeowner about $1.75 a day, or $53 a month, and you vote on it.
Mental health care, housing help, youth programs: every year they walk into the city budget as the weakest party in the room, and something with more pull wins. When the city does pay for big repairs, it borrows, and the debt payments crowd out the next round of repairs.
The Remodel Fund is its own line on your property tax, set aside for this work, and you vote on it once. It costs the median homeowner about $1.75 a day, or $53 a month, and homeowners who live in their homes and qualify by income get a rebate. It raises about $1.06 billion a year. About $273 million goes to programs, paid first, every year: mental health and addiction treatment, crisis teams, help staying housed, a home for people sleeping outside, youth crews, trees and greened lots, abandoned property brought back to life, and money set aside for the dog parks and basketball courts neighbors ask for. Each one is budgeted at what it costs to do right. I count these programs as infrastructure, the same as pipes and streets.
Everything above that, about $782 million a year, rebuilds neighborhoods block by block: new water mains and sewers, lead water lines taken out in the same trench, overhead utility lines buried, new curbs, sidewalks and parks. The street is dug up once, and every system under it is fixed at the same time. Together with the River Crossing Fee, a toll that people who don't live in Chicago pay to drive across the bridges over the Chicago River, that's more than $1 billion a year going into Chicago's neighborhoods.
It pays for the work as the money comes in, with no bonds and no interest. It's permanent, because pipes and streets never stop wearing out. So the oversight is permanent too: a public report every quarter, an independent audit every year, and a published work schedule.
WHAT IT WON'T DO
It doesn't disappear into City Hall. The money goes to its own fund, not the general budget, and a seven-member independent board runs it. No current elected officials or political appointees can serve. Every grant and contract is published, and contracts of $50,000 or more are competitively bid.
It can't be raided. The money can't be moved to pay for overtime, pensions or anyone's discretionary account. Pensions have their own line on the ballot. This money goes to the programs and the blocks.
It won't cut programs to pour concrete. Programs are fully funded first. If money ever runs short, construction pauses and the programs keep running.
It won't come back for more. If costs run high, the work slows down and the tax stays at the rate you voted for. And the city never borrows against it.
It won't pile up. Money the work can't use goes to a reserve with a cap. Anything over the cap comes off next year's bill, and so does outside money that pays for work you were already paying for.
How it connects
Nothing in this plan works alone. These are the questions people ask next, and the policies that answer them.
Where does the money freed up by ending TIF (tax increment financing) districts go? TIF Abolition winds the districts down, and the city's share of the freed money first gets the Remodel Fund started. Once the fund's own tax line is collected, that share goes back to the operating budget to close existing deficits.
TIF Abolition →
What does it actually pay for? It builds each neighborhood's own downtown under Complete Neighborhoods, called a frunchroom, with a free plaza and a main street you can walk. It also pays for Chicago Guardians, teams of a medic and a mental health professional who answer crisis calls instead of police, and the Housing Stability Initiative, which gets low-income tenants facing eviction a lawyer and small landlords rental help within 30 days.
Complete Neighborhoods: The Frunchroom →
Chicago Guardians →
Housing Stability Initiative →
What exactly gets rebuilt on my street? Paved Paradise rebuilds the whole street in one dig, from the pipes, lead lines and sewers underneath to the road, curbs, sidewalks, lights and trees on top, then keeps it up on a schedule.
Paved Paradise →
What else pays for the rebuild? The River Crossing Fee is a toll drivers who don't live in Chicago pay to cross the Chicago River. A fifth of it restores the river bridges and the rest rebuilds neighborhoods.
River Crossing Fee →
What about the pension debt? Pensions have their own voter-approved line on the property tax, the Pension Promise, which pays off the debt on a fixed 20-year schedule and then ends, and none of the Remodel Fund goes to pensions.
Keeping Our Promises: Paying Off the Pension Debt →
Who checks that the money delivered what was promised? The Mayor's Delivery Unit, a small team in the mayor's office, gives every commitment a measurable target and publishes a public dashboard and a progress report every quarter.
Mayor's Delivery Unit →
FISCAL IMPACT
Revenue Generating
RENOVATION STEP
Design
SHOW THE FULL POLICY DETAILS
01
Where it ranks
HOW WE DELIVER IT · PAY FOR IT
#1 of 6
PAY FOR IT
100 / 100
Enables
Scale
Long-term
PROMISING The Chicago Remodel Fund is a permanent, voter-approved line on the property tax. It costs the median homeowner about $1.75 a day, or $53 a month. It raises about $1,055 million a year, and that money pays for the Chicago Guardians crisis teams, mental health care, help staying housed (Housing Stability and Housing First), green streets, the frunchroom zones (the areas around each neighborhood's new center, where the rebuild starts first), the Yellow Brick Road streets for walking and biking, and the block-by-block rebuild. It reaches every block.
See all the priorities
How I set them
02
How it works
Two permanent sources
The first is a dedicated line on the property tax that Chicago voters approve, sized to raise about $1.06 billion a year. The second is half of what the Productive Land Incentive, a surcharge on vacant land and surface parking lots, collects from their owners.
TIF money is only the start-up bridge
TIF (tax increment financing) sets aside the growth in property taxes inside a district for up to 23 years, instead of sending it to schools, parks and city services. As TIF winds down, the city's share of that money is freed up. Before the fund's property tax line is collected, that freed share starts the first programs in the frunchroom zones (each neighborhood's new plaza and main street). Once the property tax line and the fund's other sources replace it, that money stays in the city's operating budget and goes only to closing deficits the city already has, while the districts shut down. It's never borrowed against, and it doesn't go to pensions.
What it costs you
The fund's property tax line costs the median homeowner (the homeowner in the middle of Chicago's property tax bills) about $1.75 a day, or $53 a month. Homeowners who live in their homes and qualify by income get a rebate, paid from the fund. The rebate is based on income, not on what the house is worth.
Programs come first: about $273 million a year
The programs are Mental Health & Addiction Recovery, which provides mental health and addiction treatment ($100 million at full build-out); the Housing Stability Initiative, which gives tenants facing eviction a lawyer and emergency rent help ($25 million); Chicago Guardians, crisis teams that send clinicians instead of police to mental health calls ($22 million after Medicaid); the Chicago Service Corps, volunteers and paid teen crews who care for the plazas, trees and gardens ($20 million); Green Streets, which cleans up empty lots, lights alleys and plants trees ($21 million a year once it's up to speed); Housing First Chicago, which moves people sleeping outside into homes ($50 million); abandoned property activation, which fixes up abandoned property ($10 million); and the ward amenities line, for things like dog parks and basketball courts ($25 million). Each budget is what it costs to do that program right; nothing is sized to fit whatever money is left over. Programs start in the frunchroom zones and go citywide by Year 4, and they're fully funded before any money moves to construction.
Then the blocks, in a set order
Everything left after the programs, about $782 million a year, rebuilds the city in this order: (1) the frunchroom zones in full, including the water mains, sewers, roads and sidewalks inside each zone; (2) the block-by-block spread outward from each zone: new water mains and sewers, a shared utility trench with overhead lines buried, new curbs and sidewalks, underground shared waste containers, geothermal wells, solar and wind, and park upgrades; (3) citywide rebuild work, including Yellow Brick Road corridors (streets where people walking come first, then bikes), rebuild miles chosen by condition and the full rebuild of Western Avenue (Paved Paradise, the plan to rebuild each street once, from the pipes under it to the sidewalk); (4) a construction reserve for the catch-up years (when street rebuilding runs at full pace to clear the backlog of streets in poor condition), Western Avenue and cost overruns. Money the work can't use in a given year goes to the reserve, never to the city's day-to-day operations. The reserve is capped at about one year of rebuild money. Anything above the cap comes off the next year's property tax line, on every bill. State or federal money that pays for work the fund would have paid for goes the same way: it covers any shortfall first, then the reserve, then comes off your bill.
Paid back for what the city would have spent anyway
The city's water and sewer funds and the Chicago Department of Transportation pay the fund back for what they would have spent on a zone's water mains, sewers, road and sidewalks anyway, about 28-32% of a zone's cost. Water customers, not property taxpayers, still pay for water pipes. If an agency doesn't pay, the zone still gets built and the citywide rebuild miles slow down.
Help for storefronts during construction
About $12 million a year from the rebuild budget goes to businesses. Every storefront on an active construction block gets $1,500 automatically, and businesses that document losses can get up to $25,000 a year. Lead service lines come out in the same trench but are paid for through Lead-Free Chicago, the plan's program to replace lead water pipes, not this fund.
Pay as you go, with the cushion built in
The fund never borrows by selling bonds, so it pays no interest. About $150 million of the property tax line is set aside as a cushion for construction costs, so if costs run high the pace slows first, the frunchroom zones are protected, and the property tax line doesn't go up. Long-lived work like pipes and bridges can be paid for with borrowing, but never by borrowing against this fund, and only under one rule: we never borrow to pay the city's regular bills, and we borrow only to build things that last.
Kept separate from the city budget
The property tax line goes to the fund, not the city's general budget, and can't be redirected to pensions, overtime or anyone's discretionary account. Pensions have their own voter-approved property tax line, the Pension Promise line in the Keeping Our Promises policy, which pays off the city's pension debt on a fixed 20-year schedule. A seven-member independent board runs the fund: two members named by the mayor, two by the City Council and three chosen through a community nomination process. No current elected officials or political appointees can serve. The one ward-level piece is the $25 million ward amenities line for things like dog parks and basketball courts: aldermen pick the projects, residents can vote on them through a city polling tool, it can't be used for patronage, and every dollar is published.
Open books
The fund publishes financial reports every quarter, gets an independent audit every year, and keeps an open public database of every grant and contract. Contracts of $50,000 or more are competitively bid.
Permanent, and checked
You vote on it once. It doesn't expire, because the pipes, streets and sidewalks it pays for wear out on a clock measured in decades, and a ten-year tax would stop just as the work reaches full speed. Every ten years a citywide census and an independent audit report what the fund did, and the results are published.
03
What it costs
Dedicated property tax line (voter-approved, permanent)
~$1.06B a year
Cost to the median homeowner
~$1.75 a day ($53 a month)
Mental Health & Addiction Recovery
$100M a year at full build-out ($48M in Year 1, $65M Year 2, $82M Year 3)
Housing Stability Initiative
$25M a year
Chicago Guardians (after Medicaid)
$22M a year
Chicago Service Corps
$20M a year
Green Streets
$21M a year once it's up to speed ($48M in Year 1, $32M Year 2, $26M Year 3)
Housing First Chicago
$50M a year
Abandoned property activation
$10M a year
Ward amenities line
$25M a year
Programs, total
~$273M a year
Rebuilding neighborhoods (everything left after the programs)
~$782M a year
Productive Land Incentive, 50% share (policy estimate)
~$12M in Year 1, rising to $50M by Year 5
TIF money
Used only to get the fund started; then it stays in the city's operating budget to close deficits
Into Chicago's neighborhoods each year, counting the River Crossing Fee (a toll on non-residents who drive across the Chicago River)
More than $1B
The property tax line is a design target. It is sized so the median homeowner pays about $1.75 a day, based on that homeowner's $4,597 property tax bill (tax year 2025). It will be checked against the Cook County Clerk's tax rate report before it's final. Rebates for homeowners who live in their homes are paid from the fund. Programs ramp up over their first years, and money a program doesn't use while it ramps up goes to the construction reserve. Here is how the budget works out in a catch-up year, at today's prices. If costs land at the midpoint of the estimates, about $130 million a year is left for the construction reserve. If costs land at the low end, about $648 million a year is left to spare. If costs land at the high end, the fund comes up about $490 million a year short; in that case the work slows down and the property tax line doesn't go up. Together with the Pension Promise line (a separate property tax line that pays off the city's pension debt on a fixed 20-year schedule), the two lines come to about $3.89 a day, or $118 a month. With the Spine Line charge (for a new subway under Western Avenue and 95th Street), which is collected from the first year, all three come to about $5.38 a day, or $164 a month.