Department of Environment – BGA Policy 2027 Budget Snapshot

Re-established after being dissolved under the Emanuel administration, the Department of Environment underwent a dramatic expansion of headcount and appropriations in the 2026 budget. This will be its second year at those new and expanded operational level. 

• The 2026 budget increased DoE’s appropriations and headcounts significantly. 2027 continues the department at roughly the same levels, with a very slight increase in appropriations and no net change in budgeted headcount.
  
• The department’s total appropriations are somewhat misleading as to the actual cost of operations: $41.7 million of the department’s $53 million budget comes from the EPA’s Anadarko Streeterville Removal Superfund grant, and of that, $41.3 million is held in reserve balance. Setting aside the reserve balance category, DoE has proposed 2027 appropriations of only $10.8 million, $8 million of which go towards salaries and wages on payroll.
  
• The largest single-category spending increase in DoE’s 2027 budget is a $2.1 million (35%) increase in salaries and wages on payroll. The department is holding slightly less in reserve balance funds than in 2026, with the reserve balance appropriation down -$1.8 million (-4.1%)

The current Department of Environment was first established in the 2023 budget as the “Office of Climate and Environmental Equity,” with preliminary appropriations and positions for the department’s formation. (The city had a prior Department of Environment, created under Mayor Richard M. Daley in 1992, but it was disbanded in 2012 as part of Rahm Emanuel’s first budget and city reorganization.) 

The 2024 budget first established the new Department of Environment as a fully budgeted, standalone department, while the 2026 budget substantially expanded the departmental budget and headcount. The department in its current form is too new for historical or inflation-adjusted comparisons, although the version that existed prior to the Emanuel administration had a final year budget of roughly $55 million in 2011, or approximately $75 million in 2025 dollars – substantially more than the current department’s proposed $53.1 million for 2027. 

Estimated Fringe Costs

City budgets do not break out “fringe” pension and benefit costs for non-grant positions by department, instead grouping them together as citywide expenses under the Finance General section of the budget. To better reflect the real cost of service for departmental operations, BGA Policy has included an estimate of pension and benefit costs for the years 2018-2026, using Department of Finance fringe memos from each relevant year. An estimated fringe cost for the 2027 proposal uses the average annual rate of increase for each of the inputs into the fringe formulae. 

Based on the city’s fringe formulae, the DoE fringe cost for nongrant employees in 2026, its only year operating at its current size, was 9.2%, compared to a citywide average of 32.0%. 

Local Fund Actual Spend

The Department of Environment spent on 94% of its locally funded budget in 2025, the last full year for which budget actuals are available, compared to the citywide average 87.5% local fund spend.

Budgeted Positions & Vacancies

Last year was the Department of Environment’s first year at its current size, leaping from 14 budgeted positions in 2025 to 79 in 2026. 

Much of the year was spent filling those new positions, as seen in DoE’s monthly vacancy data. At the start of the year, only 16 of the department’s 79 budgeted positions were full; by September (the last full month for which vacancy data is currently available), 61 were full, for a vacancy rate of 22.8%

16 of the department’s budgeted full-time positions were persistent vacancies (defined as the number of positions within the same combination of title, subsection, section, division, department, and fund codes that remained vacant in all nine months of available data): 

Overall budgeted headcount at the Department of Environment did not change. One Supervising Environmental Engineer position was eliminated from the previous year’s budgeted positions (eliminating the title from DoE’s budget), and one Deputy Commissioner position was added. 

The Department of Environment is primarily grant-funded, although its appropriations from local funds increased slightly in the 2027 proposal, up to 15% of departmental appropriations from 10.7% in 2026. 

Federal grants make up the bulk of DoE’s budget, and of the department’s $43 million in federal grants, $41.7 million come from the EPA’s Anadarko Streeterville Removal Superfund program.

Largest Appropriations

Most of the Department of Environment’s 2027 budget is not dedicated towards actual 2027 operations: $41.7 million of the department’s $53 million budget comes from the EPA’s Anadarko Streeterville Removal Superfund grant, and of that, $41.3 million is held in reserve balance.

Setting aside the reserve balance category, DoE has proposed 2027 appropriations of only $10.8 million, $8 million of which go towards salaries and wages on payroll. 

In 2025, the most recent complete budget year for which local fund actuals and encumbrances data is available, DoE spent 94% of its (relatively small) locally-funded budget. 

Change from Previous Year

The largest single-category spending increase in DoE’s 2027 budget is a $2.1 million (35%) increase in salaries and wages on payroll. The department is holding slightly less in reserve balance funds than in 2026, with the reserve balance appropriation down -$1.8 million (-4.1%)