Your Chicago Receipt shows what the New Burnham Plan would cost your household and what comes back to you. You can also build your own: pick the policies you want and see what they cost you a day and a month.
YOUR CHICAGO
WHAT IT COSTS YOU, AND WHAT YOU GET BACK.
Get a receipt for your own household: what you put in, and what comes back. Or pick just the parts of the plan you want and see what they cost you a day and a month.
1YOUR RECEIPT
2BUILD YOUR CHICAGO
Your Chicago Receipt
This receipt shows what the New Burnham Plan would cost your household and what comes back to you. Put in a few details. Every line says how firm its number is.
PICK YOUR OWN PIECES: BUILD YOUR CHICAGO
Nothing you type here is saved or sent anywhere. Until you fill something in, the receipt shows an example: the median Chicago homeowner, with a $65,000 job in Chicago and one midsize car. Change anything and it becomes your receipt.
Where you live
YOUR COMMUNITY AREA
Choose your neighborhood…
Albany Park
Archer Heights
Armour Square
Ashburn
Auburn Gresham
Austin
Avalon Park
Avondale
Belmont Cragin
Beverly
Bridgeport
Brighton Park
Burnside
Calumet Heights
Chatham
Chicago Lawn
Clearing
Douglas
Dunning
East Garfield Park
East Side
Edgewater
Edison Park
Englewood
Forest Glen
Fuller Park
Gage Park
Garfield Ridge
Grand Boulevard
Greater Grand Crossing
Hegewisch
Hermosa
Humboldt Park
Hyde Park
Irving Park
Jefferson Park
Kenwood
Lake View
Lincoln Park
Lincoln Square
Logan Square
Loop
Lower West Side
McKinley Park
Montclare
Morgan Park
Mount Greenwood
Near North Side
Near South Side
Near West Side
New City
North Center
North Lawndale
North Park
Norwood Park
O'Hare
Oakland
Portage Park
Pullman
Riverdale
Rogers Park
Roseland
South Chicago
South Deering
South Lawndale
South Shore
Uptown
Washington Heights
Washington Park
West Elsdon
West Englewood
West Garfield Park
West Lawn
West Pullman
West Ridge
West Town
Woodlawn
DO YOU OWN OR RENT?
OWN
RENT
TYPE OF BUILDING
Choose…
House (single-family)
2–4 unit building
Condo or 5+ unit building
I live within about a mile of Western Avenue
Who's in your household
YOUR AGE
HOUSEHOLD
JUST ME
ME + SPOUSE/PARTNER
YOUR WORK
YEARLY PAY (BEFORE TAXES)
HOURLY WAGE, IF PAID BY THE HOUR
HOURS A WEEK
My job is in Chicago
I'm retired or not working
KIDS AT HOME
+ ADD A CHILD
We're expecting, or may need family or medical leave
Shows what 12 weeks of paid leave would pay you.
Getting around and other details
VEHICLES WITH A CHICAGO CITY STICKER
+ ADD A VEHICLE
My household gets the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)
Someone in my household has no health insurance or a very high deductible
✶ ✶ ✶ ✶
YOUR CHICAGO RECEIPT
Example · the median Chicago homeowner
This is an example. It shows the median Chicago homeowner, with a $4,597 property tax bill on a house built before 1986, a $65,000 job in Chicago and one midsize car. Fill in the form and this becomes your receipt.
WHAT YOU'D PUT IN
$8.88 a day
about $270 a month
You put in
$270/mo
Back to you
plus $10,000 in one-time value
$0.00/mo
Your net cost
This counts monthly cash items only.
$270/mo
You vote on the three property tax pieces. The neighborhood fund (the Chicago Remodel Fund), the pension payoff and the Spine Line are separate yes-or-no questions on the March 21, 2028 ballot. None of them is charged unless voters say yes.
BILL BY BILL: WHERE YOU'D PAY IT
Your property tax bill
+$163/mo
This shows your bill today, each piece the plan adds to it, and what you'd pay. All together, that comes to about $163 a month more, or 43% more than today. You vote on each piece.
Your bill today
$383/mo
+ Your neighborhood, rebuilt
This is the Chicago Remodel Fund, a permanent, voter-approved line on your property tax. It has no end date, because pipes and streets never stop wearing out. If you live in your home and earn below an income line, you get a rebate on it.
+$53/mo
+ The pension debt, paid off
This is the Pension Promise line, a separate voter-approved line that pays off the city's pension debt. It ends after 20 years, when the debt is paid.
+$65/mo
+ The Spine Line
The Spine Line is a 25-mile subway under Western Avenue and 95th Street with a transfer to every L line. The rate is the same for everyone. It ends when its construction bonds are paid off, about 33 years after the first bill.
+$45/mo
Your bill with the plan
$546/mo
YOUR BILL NEXT TO THE SAME HOME IN THE SUBURBS
Chicago homeowners have been paying less property tax than suburban homeowners pay for the same home. The plan brings us up to about where the suburbs are, and the money pays for a rebuilt city, the pension debt and a new subway. Here's what a home worth the same as yours would pay in each town.
Your bill today
$383/mo
Naperville (west)
$410/mo
Glenview (north)
$415/mo
Wheaton (west)
$444/mo
Orland Park (southwest)
$460/mo
Evanston (north)
$467/mo
Arlington Heights (northwest)
$517/mo
Schaumburg (northwest)
$524/mo
Your bill with the plan
$546/mo
Oak Park (west)
$655/mo
Chicago Heights (south)
$734/mo
Each town uses its estimated effective residential property tax rate for tax year 2022 from the Civic Federation (one tax area per town, before homeowner exemptions), applied to a home worth the same as yours. Chicago's rate was 1.69%, the lowest of the 12 Cook County towns it studied. With the plan it would be about 2.41%. Rates have changed since 2022, and your bill also depends on your exemptions.
Your paycheck
+$81/mo
This shows your pay before taxes, per month. The Family Care share (the payroll contribution for Chicago Family Care for All) comes out of every paycheck from a job in Chicago, the way Medicare does, and your employer pays a matching 1.5%. It pays for $10-a-day childcare and 12 weeks of paid leave at 90% of pay. The Dignity Wage, a higher minimum wage for adults, raises pay on top of that.
Your pay today
$65,000 a year.
$5,417/mo
− Family Care share (1.5%) ESTIMATE
−$81/mo
With the plan
$5,336/mo
+ Your raise from the pay ladder, after its Family Care share ESTIMATE
You already earn more than the new minimum wage, so the law doesn't change your pay. But when the bottom of the pay ladder moves up, the rungs above it move too. Our estimate is a raise from about $31.25 to $38.07 an hour, at 40 hours a week.
+$1,165/mo
With the raise (our estimate)
$6,501/mo
No adult working full time in Chicago makes less than about $63,500 a year, $30.53 an hour in today's dollars, once the Dignity Wage is fully phased in. The wage floor is recalculated every May 1 from what it costs to live in Cook County, rent included, so it keeps rising with the cost of living.
Everyone earning from $30.53 up to $45.80 an hour (about $63,500 to $95,300 a year full time) should see a raise too. When the lowest-paid jobs in Chicago pay $63,500 a year, skilled workers earning near that today have the leverage to ask for more, and employers keep their pay ladders in order. The $63,500 floor is the guarantee; raises above it are our estimate. The method is under "How I figured this."
Source: the Hamilton Project counts workers earning up to 150% of a new minimum wage as getting raises (Kearney and Harris, "The 'Ripple Effect' of a Minimum Wage Increase on American Workers," 2014).
Your water bill
+$20/mo
Lead-Free water surcharge ESTIMATE
$8 a month at the starting tier, plus about $6.50 a month as it rises to carry at least 20,000 lines a year (the plan says roughly $5 to $8 more; I used the middle). Over the 21 or so years it takes to replace every lead line, that's about $3,600 in all. If you have a lead line, you get about $10,000 of work done for you. This is a new, temporary charge, and it ends when the last lead line is out.
+$15/mo
$0.48/day
Water and sewer rates ESTIMATE
Rates rise about 1% a year above inflation for ten years to replace pipes on a 100-year schedule (for a home using 5,000 gallons a month). The amount shown is the Year 10 level. It phases in gradually and then continues, with no end date.
+$5.00/mo
$0.16/day
Your city sticker
+$5.82/mo
City sticker (change) SET
Midsize, 3,000–4,500 lb: $175 vs $105.18 today. The sticker money pays for road repair, electric-vehicle charging, transportation help for low-income households and Chicago Ride, the city-run rideshare.
+$5.82/mo
$0.19/day
WHAT YOUR $8.88 A DAY BUYS
Our pension crisis, paid off
The four city pension funds' $36.4 billion debt is paid off on a fixed 20-year schedule, instead of growing. Your household's share: about $13,337.
Paid by: Pension Promise line
Your neighborhood, renovated
Every neighborhood is rebuilt on a published schedule you can look up: 400 miles repaved a year (the whole network, alleys included, about every 15 years), 44 miles a year rebuilt from the pipes up by Year 5, and every lead line replaced at least twice as fast as the city's current pace. The work happens on schedule instead of waiting for things to break.
Paid by: Remodel Fund · water and sewer rates · sticker · Lead-Free surcharge
A frunchroom at the heart of it
Each neighborhood gets its own downtown: a free public gathering place with a rebuilt main street around it. The city starts about 4 zones a year, at least 30–32 by Year 10, chosen by score and then a public and aldermanic vote.
Paid by: Remodel Fund · River Crossing Fee, paid mostly by non-residents
An alternative transit network
The Yellow Brick Road is a network of streets where you can walk, bike or drive a low-speed vehicle with no cars cutting through, connecting neighborhoods to each frunchroom. Low-speed vehicles and motorcycles register free.
Paid by: Remodel Fund
The right responder for a crisis
Chicago Guardians sends a paramedic and a mental health clinician, 24 hours a day, to crisis calls with no weapon and no violence. 25+ teams handle 25,000+ calls a year by Year 3.
Paid by: Remodel Fund
Somewhere to take people
Public mental health clinics expand to 19, and a 24/7 crisis center opens so police and paramedics can drop someone off and get back on the street.
Paid by: Remodel Fund
$10-a-day childcare and paid leave
Every Chicago family gets childcare for $10 a day from 6 weeks until CPS pre-K, and every Chicago worker who needs it gets 12 weeks of paid leave at 90% of pay.
Paid by: Family Care payroll share
ONE-TIME VALUE
Lead service line replaced, paid for you SET
The plan budgets $10,000 a line. Today, unless you qualify for one of the city's free programs, you hire and pay your own contractor; the city waives permit fees. You pay the Lead-Free surcharge, about $14.50 a month, until the last lead line in the city is out: about $3,600 in all over 21 years or so, for $10,000 of work.
$10,000
Paid leave, if you ever need it ESTIMATE
You'd be covered for 12 weeks at 90% of pay (about $1,125 a week) for a new baby, a seriously ill family member or your own serious illness. It isn't counted in your totals.
$13,500
All of it
$8.88/day · $270/mo
Show your neighbors your number.
SHARE MY RECEIPT
This makes an image with your neighborhood, your household type and your per-day, per-month and money-back totals. Nothing else you entered is on it, and nothing is uploaded. Caption: The New Burnham Plan for the median Chicago homeowner: about $8.88 a day ($270 a month). Run your own numbers: yourchilife.com/your-chicago @maybemayorbarlow #MaybeMayorBarlow
SETdesign target in the plan
ESTIMATEcampaign estimate
ILLUSTRATIONnot counted in totals
What's in it for you
Build what your block already has
Under Contextual Zoning, your block sets the limits: if a taller or bigger building already stands on your block, you can build to match it and fit as many homes inside as meet the minimum sizes, with no unit cap and no alderman's permission. You can also add a coach house, a basement unit or an attic unit without special approval, for rental income or room for family.
For everyone
Your block is rebuilt from the pipes up on a published schedule. Every lead line comes out. The city's pension debt is paid off in 20 years instead of growing. Residents cross the river bridges free.
Leave this empty
YOUR TURN
WOULD YOU VOTE YES?
Now that you've seen what it costs you and what comes back, tell me straight. I read every answer.
DO YOU SUPPORT THE NEW BURNHAM PLAN?
YES
NOT SURE
NO
HOW WOULD YOU VOTE ON EACH BALLOT QUESTION? (OPTIONAL)
FIRST NAME (OPTIONAL)
LAST NAME (OPTIONAL)
EMAIL (OPTIONAL)
NEIGHBORHOOD
Choose your neighborhood…
Albany Park
Archer Heights
Armour Square
Ashburn
Auburn Gresham
Austin
Avalon Park
Avondale
Belmont Cragin
Beverly
Bridgeport
Brighton Park
Burnside
Calumet Heights
Chatham
Chicago Lawn
Clearing
Douglas
Dunning
East Garfield Park
East Side
Edgewater
Edison Park
Englewood
Forest Glen
Fuller Park
Gage Park
Garfield Ridge
Grand Boulevard
Greater Grand Crossing
Hegewisch
Hermosa
Humboldt Park
Hyde Park
Irving Park
Jefferson Park
Kenwood
Lake View
Lincoln Park
Lincoln Square
Logan Square
Loop
Lower West Side
McKinley Park
Montclare
Morgan Park
Mount Greenwood
Near North Side
Near South Side
Near West Side
New City
North Center
North Lawndale
North Park
Norwood Park
O'Hare
Oakland
Portage Park
Pullman
Riverdale
Rogers Park
Roseland
South Chicago
South Deering
South Lawndale
South Shore
Uptown
Washington Heights
Washington Park
West Elsdon
West Englewood
West Garfield Park
West Lawn
West Pullman
West Ridge
West Town
Woodlawn
Send me campaign updates by email
SEND MY ANSWER
Your answers go to the campaign, along with whether you own or rent, your household size and your neighborhood. None of the dollar amounts you entered are sent. Names, emails and post links are never shown or shared; the wall shows only first name, last initial and neighborhood. I only email you if you check the box.
HOW I FIGURED THIS
These are estimates, not a bill. All figures are per day and per month, in today's dollars.
PICK YOUR OWN PIECES: BUILD YOUR CHICAGO