Chicago City Council members approved a $16.4 billion budget by Mayor Lori Lightfoot during a Monday meeting.
A divided City Council on Monday handed Mayor Lori Lightfoot the $16.4 billion 2023 budget that will serve as her reelection platform amid complaints that it shortchanges public safety, climate change and her own progressive promises.
"Hard work pays off. ... Our residents have and continue to benefit from our hard work," the mayor said. La Spata went on to say that "a lot of the asks" by the Council's Latino Caucus "seem to have fallen on deaf ears." Ald. Gilbert Villegas , Lightfoot's former City Council floor leader, was also on board. Still, Villegas said he "longs for the day" when the Council becomes more independent, proposing its own budget, and negotiating with the mayor to reach a compromise version.
They may soon be joined by retiring Ald. Tom Tunney , who declared his opposition to the budget, in part, by noting that the Town Hall police district in his ward now has 285 police officers - down from 415 when Rahm Emanuel was mayor.morale is at an all-time low. People do not go out at night anymore. What kind of city are we living in? ... I'm very worried about the direction of our city and the leadership of our police department," Tunney said Monday.
Reilly fired back during Monday's debate, calling himself a "pro-police, pro-law-and-order" alderperson. For Lightfoot to claim he's anything but is "intellectually dishonest and wrong," Reilly said. CPD now has 11,623 sworn officers, down from 13,353 shortly before Lightfoot took office. To date, 693 officers have begun their six months of training - nowhere near enough to keep pace with attrition.
"It's inexcusable that we did not spend more of that money. We have to put that money on the ground in communities. We have to do it with a sense of urgency," Osterman said Monday. Ald. Maria Hadden noted again Monday that her North Lakefront ward has lost "one-to-two feet of land with every winter storm from lakefront erosion and high water levels" in Lake Michigan. A tornado touched down in Rogers Park. And three women died during a heat wave in a sweltering building in the 49th Ward without air-conditioning turned on.
Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa has branded Park's explanation "insulting," "disingenuous" and "disrespectful to the people who voted for change." $242 million to "pre-pay" future pension obligations instead of making, what the mayor has called the "minimum monthly payment" on Chicago's "pension credit card" while paying "compounded interest."
$5 million to support immigrants brought to Chicago from Texas and other border states and $3 million for "reproductive services" tied to the influx of women descending on Chicago seeking abortions outlawed in their homes states.More fine and fee reforms, this time helping businesses and individuals saddled with administrative hearing debt.
Lightfoot is also carrying over $220 million from this year's budget surplus - compared to just $50 million a year ago - and counting it as revenue in 2023. That could spell trouble for whoever wins the mayoral election.$1.85 billion in general obligation bonds to bankroll two more years of Lightfoot's massive capital plan.
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