Chicago News
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NOV 17, 2020
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Mayor Lori Lightfoot during a press conference on Monday said she is putting additional funding toward violence prevention and program that would send mental health professionals and police to mental health calls.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot vowed on Monday to pad her proposed 2021 budget with an extra $10 million in funding toward violence prevention efforts and expand a plan to send mental health professionals to respond to emergencies. Yet even with the added measures, the mayor faces an uphill battle to get at least 26 “yes” votes.
Many aldermen remain skeptical of Lightfoot’s plan to close the city’s $1.2 billion budget chasm by hiking the city’s property tax levy by $94 million and restructuring or refinancing $1.7 billion in debt. Lightfoot on Monday formally introduced her proposed $1.63 billion tax levy (O2020-5747), plus a revenue ordinance (O2020-5749) spelling out plans to issue more than $2 billion in borrowing. -
NOV 17, 2020
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday that she opposes a proposal to legalize video gaming terminals in Chicago.
Aldermen on Monday sabotaged a series of their colleagues’ proposals aimed at averting Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s proposed $94 million property tax hike, but one pitch by a group of Democratic Socialist aldermen to raid three of the city’s most lucrative tax-increment financing districts remain on the table. -
NOV 17, 2020
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News in brief: Delivery fee caps set for approval; $134M Cook County Forest Preserves budget faces final vote
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NOV 16, 2020
Cook County Board of Review Comm. Dan Patlak (R-1) and county Circuit Judge Jackie Portman-Brown on Sunday both appeared on track to be fired by voters, as fewer than 30,000 votes remained to be tabulated countywide.
Cook County Board of Review Comm. Dan Patlak and Circuit Judge Jackie Portman-Brown [Cook County; Facebook/Friends Of Judge Jackie Marie Portman-Brown] -
NOV 16, 2020
Map of a proposed Special Service Area that would run along the North Michigan Avenue retail district
Downtown business leaders and city planning officials made the case on Friday for an “expedited” process to create a new Special Service Area (SSA) along North Michigan Avenue, but the aldermen who represent the city’s marquee retail district aren’t sold. -
NOV 16, 2020
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Mayor Lori Lightfoot is set to introduce ordinances on Monday formalizing her $12.8 billion budget proposal for 2021.
Negotiations are set to intensify this week as Mayor Lori Lightfoot rolls out ordinances to formalize her $12.8 billion budget proposal, even after the mayor announced a deal with labor leaders to avert more than 300 potential layoffs next year.
The agreement, announced on Saturday, was made possible because of higher-than-expected tax revenue from cannabis sales, according to city financial officials. The city will borrow an additional $15 million against the pot revenue at a rate of 3.25 percent, officials said. -
NOV 13, 2020
Cook County commissioners are poised on Tuesday to pass a $134 million budget for the county’s Forest Preserve District that manages to avoid layoffs, permanent closures or significant tax increases. But a longer-term crisis looms on the horizon if the county does not come up with more money soon for the network of public lands, district leaders say.
A jogger uses a trail in the Busse Woods, one of 22 Cook County Forest Preserves [Facebook/Forest Preserve District of Cook County] -
NOV 12, 2020
Corporation Counsel Mark Flessner on Tuesday addressed aldermen during a hearing on the department’s budget.
A letter that Corporation Counsel Mark Flessner sent aldermen in September warning against demanding companies do more to meet the city’s minority hiring rules was back in the limelight Tuesday during the Department of Law budget hearing. -
NOV 12, 2020
It’s been three weeks since Mayor Lori Lightfoot introduced her 2021 budget proposal, and now aldermen say negotiations on funding and spending begin.
As the ordinance for Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s proposed 2021 budget will be presented next week, aldermen say now is when the grinding out of what will eventually become the city’s 2021 budget occurs. -
NOV 11, 2020
Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection Comm. Rosa Escareño speaks to aldermen during a budget hearing on Tuesday.
City licensing officials will keep up their efforts next year to keep businesses in line with rapidly-shifting COVID-19 restrictions despite a draw-down in funding from taxpayers and dwindling fine collections, officials said Tuesday. -
NOV 11, 2020
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability, including Chief Administrator Sydney Roberts answered budget questions on Tuesday.
Despite a drop early in the pandemic, the office that investigates police misconduct complaints is on track to receive about 5,500 complaints this year, in line what it saw in 2019, due to a "spike in complaints" over the summer "as a result of civil unrest," the office’s Chief Administrator Sydney Roberts told aldermen on Tuesday. -
NOV 10, 2020
Department of Family and Support Services Comm. Lisa Morrison Butler speaks to aldermen during a budget hearing on Monday.
The city’s Department of Family and Support Services plans early next year to launch a $4.7 million anti-violence initiative as a potential alternative to the city’s widely criticized Juvenile Intervention and Support Center (JISC), officials announced Monday.
