So you keep raising these taxes, and all of a sudden the business community says, 'Why are we here? We can go someplace else and use their phones.' That's one of the problems that directly affects the business community.

In the summer of 2007 in reaction to ongoing indictments and convictions of aldermen Daley and Huels Richard M. Daleypherded a package of ethics reforms through City Council. " While other midwest Rust Belt cities such as Detroit and Cleveland shrank Chicago avoided this and managed to grow.

His budgets ran up the largest deficits in Chicago history. Mayor Daley expanded benefits to same-sex domestic partners of City employees and advocated for gun control. Mayor Daley was criticised when family personal friends and political allies seemed to disproportionately benefit from city contracting.