On Wednesday, October 21, 2026, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson proposed the City budget for Fiscal Year 2027. This year’s budget addresses a longstanding budget gap driven by debt payments and pension obligations, healthcare cost inflation, and federal cuts.
For the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), the city has presented an extremely small funding increase of $433,000. This is not enough to counter the significant loss of COVID relief dollars which expire this year, resulting in a $4M decrease in cultural grants. We know what a difficult budget this year is for the city, but this loss will be devastating for the community organizations that are struggling with a difficult funding landscape and rising costs.
Real-Dollar Cuts to Festivals & Events: Due to 27.5% cumulative inflation since 2019, direct funding for free public concerts (+5.7%) and special events (+17.5%) has failed to keep pace. DCASE actually has significantly less purchasing power to stage festivals and hire artists today than before the pandemic.
We want to see the overall budget keep up with inflation (at minimum), but the most urgent issue today is maintaining stable funding for the community organizations and artists who depend on DCASE to do their work across our neighborhoods and communities.
This budget year, like last, is likely going to be a contentious negotiation between the Mayor and City Council, especially given this budget vote takes place a few months before the Chicago municipal elections. The Mayor has proposed various new revenue proposals, but these revenue streams (some of which were opposed by alderpeople last year) need to be approved by the City Council. We will be following budget negotiations closely, especially as alderpeople respond to the Mayor’s proposal.
Our recent Creative Economy of Chicago: Impact and Assets report found that the creative economy is Chicago’s third largest industry, and we deserve the investment to match the economic engine we provide for our city. We need to let Mayor Johnson and the City Council know that arts & culture must be a priority in this year’s budget, so that local artists and community organizations can continue their work that makes our city shine. Use our Quorum page to find your Alderperson, and contact them about the urgency in funding DCASE.
Next Step: Contact Your Alderperson
*Note: In the budget document released by the City, we believe there is a significant error in the calculation of state dollars that went to DCASE last year. We’re working with DCASE and the City to get this error corrected. We are not including the error in the above analysis.
