The office of the mayor contains the mayor’s administrative staff and several small offices focused on specific policy areas, such as the Office of Equity and Racial Justice, Office of Community Safety, etc.
Because there is no departmental budget hearing scheduled for the mayor’s office, the Office of Budget and Management’s first-day presentation on the overall budget is the best opportunity alderpersons will have to publicly discuss appropriations to cover the cost of operating the mayor’s office.
Office of the Mayor Snapshot: Appropriation & Staffing Changes from 2026 Budget
Download data (CSV)Departmental Highlights
- A net four new positions have been budgeted for the mayor’s office. Setting aside title changes, promotions, and similar adjustments of positions within general job categories, the budget calls for two additional director-level positions and three project manager positions, with one program manager position eliminated.
- The mayor’s office has underspent somewhat in recent budget years for which full-year actuals are available, particularly from the cannabis regulation tax funded special programs appropriation. Despite only expending 36.3% of budgeted special programs funds in 2025, the 2027 budget increases the appropriation by $1.1 million (43.1%) from 2026.
- The mayor’s office was the only department (excepting the city’s smallest departments, with budgeted headcounts of 20 or less) to have no persistent vacancies from Jan-Sept of 2026. All budgeted positions were filled for at least part of the year.
- Mayor’s office budgets have increased with each successive administration, rising from an inflation-adjusted average of $12.3 million per year under Rahm Emanuel to $14.3 million under Lori Lightfoot and $19 million under Brandon Johnson (or $18.8 million when including the proposed 2027 funding level).
- Budgeted staff positions have seen similar increases under successive mayors, rising from an average of 84 budgeted positions in Emanuel’s budgets to 109 in Lightfoot’s and 117 in Johnson’s (both from 2024-2026 and when including the 2027 proposal).
Historical Context
Mayoral office budgets have increased with each successive administration, rising from an inflation-adjusted average of $12 million across Rahm Emanuel’s eight budgets (2012-2019) to an inflation-adjusted average of $14 million in Lori Lightfoot’s 2020-2023 budgets. Brandon Johnson’s first budget increased mayoral appropriations substantially further, with a departmental budget of $21 million.
Since Johnson’s first budget, appropriations for the mayor’s office have declined, but still remain above previous administration’s levels, even after adjusting for inflation. The proposed budget includes $18.3 million in mayor’s office appropriations, which if passed would bring the average across Johnson’s four budget years to $18.8 million.
Looking across the three most recent administrations, from 2011-2026, the mayor’s office budget grew at an average rate of 10.9% annually, or 10.3% adjusted for inflation, compared to a citywide average rate of 5.5% (inflation-adjusted 3.5%). The current proposal would increase the department’s appropriations by 11.2% from the previous year.
Office of the Mayor Appropriations and Inflation-adjusted Appropriations (2025 dollars)
Values in nominal dollars.
Values in 2025 dollars. No supplied inflation factors for 2026, 2027; those years remain gaps.
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 has been generated based on the average annual rate of increase in each of the inputs into the fringe formula.
Based on the city’s fringe formulae, the mayor’s office fringe cost for nongrant employees averaged 37.4% from 2018-2026, compared to a citywide average of 26.8%.
Office of the Mayor Appropriations with Estimated Fringe Cost of Pensions and Benefits for Budgeted Non-grant Positions, 2018–2027 (proposed)
Download data (CSV)Over the past four complete budget years for which local fund actuals/encumbrances data is available, the mayor’s office spent on average 79.7%% of its locally funded budget, compared to the citywide average 86.6% local fund spend.
Office of the Mayor Local Fund Actuals, 2022–2025
Download data (CSV)Like departmental appropriations, budgeted mayoral staff positions have increased during each successive administration, rising from an average of 84 budgeted positions in Emanuel’s budgets to 109 in Lightfoot’s and 117 in Johnson’s (including the 2027 proposal).
Overall, the department’s budgeted headcount grew at an average annual rate of 2.8% from 2011-2026, compared to a citywide average annual change of -0.1%. The current proposal would increase the budgeted headcount by 3.6% from the previous year.
Office of the Mayor Budgeted Workforce, 2011–2027 (proposed)
Download data (CSV)
From January through September of 2026, the months for which full-time position vacancy data is currently available, the mayor’s office averaged a 7.1% vacancy rate, compared to the citywide average of 11.2%.
None 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):
Office of the Mayor Full-time Vacancies, Jan-Sept 2026
Download data (CSV)Budgeted Position Changes
A net four new positions have been budgeted for the mayor’s office. Setting aside title changes, promotions, and similar adjustments of positions within general job categories, the budget calls for two additional director-level positions and three project manager positions, with one program manager position eliminated.
Office of the Mayor Net and Percent Position/FTE Changes, 2026 to 2027 (Proposed) Budgets
Download data (CSV)Appropriations
The mayor’s office is almost entirely locally-funded in this year’s budget proposal, with 96.9% of departmental appropriations from local funds, up from the previous year’s 94.8%.
68.8% of mayor’s office appropriations are funded from the city’s general-purpose corporate fund, with a further 24.3% from the cannabis regulation tax fund and >5% from various grant funds and, new this year, a small sewer fund appropriation for $81,437 in salary and wages on payroll. According to the proposed positions budget, one policy analyst position in the Water Policy Program section is funded from the sewer fund, a change from the previous year’s grant funding of the same position.
Office of the Mayor Fund Comparison, 2026–2027
Download data (CSV)Largest Appropriations
As with most departments, the largest appropriation category in the mayor’s office is salaries and wages on payroll. The mayor’s office also has a $3.5 million appropriation for special program costs drawn from the Cannabis Regulation Tax fund. The remainder of the department’s appropriations are relatively minor, less than $350,000 each.
Office of the Mayor Top 10 Largest Appropriations, 2027 proposed
Download data (CSV)In 2025, the most recent complete budget year for which local fund actuals and encumbrances data is available, the mayor’s office spent 75.5%% of its locally-funded budget.
The office underspent considerably in both the special program costs and restoration committee categories, expending 36.3% and 38.0% of budgeted funds respectively. The restoration committee appropriation was eliminated from the 2027 mayor’s office budget proposal, while the appropriation for special program costs increased despite the 2025 underspend.
Office of the Mayor 2025 Actual Spend (Local Funds)
Download data (CSV)Change from Previous Year
Salaries and wages on payroll saw the largest single-category increase among mayoral office appropriations, up $1.3 million (10.1%) from the previous year.
Special program costs drawn from the cannabis regulation tax fund also increased substantially, up $1.1 million (43.1%) from 2026. In 2025, the most recent budget year for which we have actual spend data, the mayor’s office expended only 36.3% of its budgeted $2.4 million in special program costs.
Most spending cuts from the previous year were minor, less than $100,000 in reduction; however, the $300,000 restoration committee appropriation was eliminated entirely.
