Chicago Fire Department – BGA Policy 2027 Budget Snapshot

From 2011-2026, CFD's budget grew at an average rate of 3.8% annually, or 1.6% when adjusted for inflation through 2025, compared to a citywide average rate of 5.5% (inflation-adjusted 3.2%). The current proposal would increase the department's appropriations by 1.4% from the previous year.

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 CFD fringe cost for nongrant employees averaged 68.8% from 2018-2026, compared to a citywide average of 26.8%. CFD's fringe rates have been the highest in the city, on average, although in several budget years the CPD fringe rate has been higher, and in terms of net spending CPD's larger workforce means it spends by far the most on fringe costs.

Local Fund Actual Spend

Over the past four complete budget years for which local fund actuals/encumbrances data is available, CFD spent on average 101.1% of its locally funded budget, compared to the citywide average 86.6% local fund spend. The bulk of that overspend is driven by a -$74 million negative appropriation for American Rescue Plan revenue replacement in the 2025 budget that did not appear in 2025 actuals.

Budgeted Positions & Vacancies

Staffing levels at CFD have remained extremely consistent over the years, with an average annual rate of change of -0.05% from 2011-2026, very close to the citywide average annual change of -0.1%. The current proposal would increase budgeted headcount by one position from the previous year, a 0.02% change.

From January through September of 2026, the months for which full-time position vacancy data is currently available, CFD averaged a 7.5% vacancy rate, compared to the citywide average of 11.2%.

225 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).

Of those, 85 were in the Firefighter-EMT Recruit title, with a further 26 each in the Firefighter and Lieutenant titles.