Chicago News
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OCT 27, 2021
Cook County Comm. Brandon Johnson (D-1) questions Sheriff Tom Dart during a budget hearing on Wednesday
Police districts are stretched thin across Cook County, and the county Sheriff’s office is straining to keep them covered, Sheriff Tom Dart told county commissioners during an hours-long budget hearing on Wednesday.
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OCT 27, 2021
County leaders are hoping the 2022 budget for the Cook County Forest Preserve District is the last annual appropriation before voters approve a tax hike to shore up the district’s finances. [Facebook/Cook County Forest Preserve District]
Cook County commissioners will get a long-awaited chance on Thursday to grill county finance officials on their still-developing plans to spend the $1 billion on tap from the American Rescue Plan as the county’s annual budget hearings wrap up on Thursday.
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OCT 27, 2021
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Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s 2022 spending plan was approved on Wednesday. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]
Aldermen approved Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s $16.7 billion so-called “recovery budget” for 2022 with plenty of votes to spare, as many aldermen touted the spending plan as a “progressive” use of the federal stimulus money that sets standards on how the city should allocate dollars in the future.
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OCT 26, 2021
Clockwise from top left: Cook County Health CEO Israel Rocha, Comm. Donna Miller (D-6), Cook County Health Chief Strategy Officer Andrea Gibson and Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer Shannon Andrews speak during a virtual budget hearing on Tuesday.
The Cook County Health system is set to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic on solid financial footing and will even grow its offerings after years of cutbacks and financial uncertainty, officials told county commissioners during a budget hearing on Tuesday.
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OCT 26, 2021
Cook County Board of Review Comm. Tammy Wendt aired objections to the board’s proposed budget during a Tuesday hearing.
Nearly a year of internal tensions at the Cook County Board of Review exploded into the open during a contentious budget hearing on Tuesday as accusations of nepotism and secrecy flew between the tax board’s elected commissioners, drawing a rebuke from the county leaders charged with voting to approve their budget.
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OCT 26, 2021
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s office is set to be allocated 179 new full-time employee positions next year, mostly accounting for new court bailiffs.
Leaders of Cook County’s two largest court offices will be on the hook Wednesday to explain how they plan to use new funding and extra employee positions to guide the county’s justice system into a post-pandemic era, all with lower staffing allocations than either agency had in 2020.
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OCT 26, 2021
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Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s 2022 budget proposal is set for a final vote Wednesday.
The City Council is set Wednesday to take its final vote on a freshly amended version of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s proposed 2022 budget, potentially setting next year’s spending plan one month ahead of the city’s normal schedule.
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OCT 26, 2021
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Aldermen attend Monday’s City Council meeting at City Hall.
Aldermen seized on a relatively short City Council meeting on Monday to banish their colleagues’ vaccine mandate-related proposals to the rules committee, delaying votes on the contentious proposals.
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OCT 26, 2021
Cook County Chief Financial Officer Ammar Rizki [left] answered questions from Comm. John Daley (D-11) and others during budget hearings on Monday.
Cook County commissioners signaled plans on Monday to give a thorough vetting to the nearly 1,600 new positions that county board President Toni Preckwinkle is proposing to add to the county’s payroll next year — especially as the county leaders look to fill an untold backlog of vacant positions already on the books.
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OCT 26, 2021
The stage is set for Tuesday’s budget hearing as a public forum for the intensifying dispute between Cook County Board of Review Comm. Tammy Wendt (D-1) [right] and her counterparts, Comm. Larry Rogers (D-3) [center] and Comm. Michael Cabonargi (D-2).
Cook County commissioners are set on Tuesday to hear two competing budget proposals for the Cook County Board of Review in the latest sign of tension between the board’s veterans and its newest commissioner.
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OCT 25, 2021
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Ald. Pat Dowell (3) presides over Friday’s budget committee meeting.
Aldermen on Friday gave quick approval to Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s proposed $16.7 billion budget plan with some added changes from the City Council, including the creation of an oversight subcommittee to monitor the city’s spending of federal stimulus money.
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OCT 25, 2021
Cook County had banked on $1.7 million in tax revenues from guns and ammunition sales in 2022. The Illinois Supreme Court struck down the tax on Thursday. [ripster8 on Unsplash]
The Cook County Board of Commissioners is set to plunge into a full week of departmental budget hearings on Monday, days after the Illinois Supreme Court blew a nearly $2 million hole in board President Toni Preckwinkle’s budget proposal.
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OCT 25, 2021
The City Council Latino Caucus says its proposed map takes its cues from census data and federal law. But the chair of the Aldermanic Black Caucus says it would be illegal. [City Council Latino Caucus; Don Vincent/The Daily Line]
A new Chicago ward map filed by the City Council Latino Caucus would bring the city’s representation closer in line with its population and unify neighborhoods sliced up under the existing map, proponents say.
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OCT 22, 2021
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Budget Director Susie Park [left] and Chief Financial Officer Jennie Huang Bennett answer questions during a finance committee meeting on Thursday.
Several aldermen initially balked on Thursday before advancing an ordinance giving the city the greenlight to borrow $660 million to help fund Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s proposed Chicago Recovery Plan, saying they don’t trust city officials to fully carry out plans for the money in their respective wards.
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OCT 22, 2021
A plan by developer Trammell Crow to build two new towers at the corner of May Street and Carroll Avenue cleared the Chicago Plan Commission despite pushback from some members.
Plans for a two-tower development that would add a gush of new apartments and offices to the booming Fulton Market district cleared a key hurdle on Thursday despite myriad questions over whether the developer has done enough to satisfy the city’s shifting affordable housing policies.
