Chicago residents, meanwhile, owe an average tax burden of $36,000. That’s due to the Windy City’s liabilities of $42 billion, compared to just $9.5 billion in assets. Chicago, too, defers recognizing gains from OPEB assumptions, which leads to the city understating its debt by $3.1 billion.
Those numbers are actually an improvement from 2017, when the average Chicago taxpayer liability was $45,000.