As Chicago aldermen prepare to approve Mayor Rahm Emanuel's $10.67 billion 2019 spending plan, many are breathing a sigh of relief.

The budget — expected to sail through the City Council on Wednesday — contains no new taxes or fee hikes. It’s an election year gift to aldermen, whose campaigns for re-election are now running full speed ahead.

But the new fiscal year won’t be entirely painless for Chicago taxpayers, thanks to tax hikes approved by aldermen in years past. Included in the budget are a second 5 cent-per-ride increase on all trips via ride-hailing services such as Uber or Lyft to help modernize the CTA, the third installment of a 29.5 percent hike in water and sewer bills, and a $63 million property tax increase to help fund police and fire pensions.

But some relief is in sight for motorists. As part of the budget, aldermen are set to approve City Clerk Anna Valencia’s proposal to create a $29.28 four-month city sticker, a 15-day grace period to purchase it and a month-long amnesty for those in debt. In addition, aldermen are set to forgive ticket debt for some city motorists, but only those who file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Nonpartisan watchdog group the Civic Federation called the budget “a reasonable one-year financial plan that does not include any new taxes or fees [and] makes important public safety investments.”

Read all of The Daily Line’s coverage of Chicago’s 2019 budget here.

But before the rubber stamp aldermen are expected to apply to Emanuel’s final budget even dries, the focus will shift to how the city will staunch the red ink set to flow from the city’s pension funds. The pension bill is set to jump 31 percent in 2020, and officials have yet to propose a way to cover that expense.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan could come at the next City Council meeting, expected to take place Dec. 12.

According to the city’s annual financial analysis, Chicago’s structural deficit —  the imbalance between revenues and expenditures — is set to balloon in 2020 to $251.7 million and then in 2021 to $362.2 million, based on an outlook that assumes the economy does not get significantly better — or worse.

The 2019 budget includes the following:

• Chicago Public Schools officials will pick up half of the $33 million tab racked up by assigning 211 Chicago Police officers to patrol public schools, and cover the $14 million cost of the Safe Passages program. Both line items were paid in full by the city last year.


• A new Department of Housing to focus on affordability issues — and a $1.4 million boost for the new department’s operations over its last incarnation. The city is in the midst of drafting its next five-year housing plan.


• $2.07 million to hire formerly incarcerated men and women in three programs. Eighty people would be hired to clean and beautify vacant lots in high-crime neighborhoods; 34 people would be hired as part of the CTA’s Second Chance Program and another 25 would be hired by the Department of Transportation’s Greencorps programs.


• $27.5 million for police reform, including cost of the monitoring team that will be charged with ensuring the city and Police Department comply with the changes ordered by Judge Robert M. Dow.


• $1.3 million more to buy garbage and recycling bins in an effort to get new trash cans to residents faster.


• $500,000 more for rat abatement that would allow crews to go into yards to search for and close rat holes rather than responding to complaints.


• $3.5 million more to expand and sustain youth mentoring programs to universally cover seventh grade boys.

Aldermen are also set to approve a number of items:

• Seven measures allowing the sale of packaged liquor throughout the city.


• Landmark designations for the Tribune Tower and the historic YMCA/YWCA building on the city’s West Side


• O2018-7766 — which is designed to prevent pricey three-story condominiums from replacing two-flats and pricing out renters in Andersonville


• O2018-8112 — A proposal to use $350,000 in funds from the 43rd and Cottage Grove tax increment financing district to add a walking path, landscaping, drinking fountain, workout stations and benches to Sumac Park, 4201 S. Champlain Ave.


• O2018-8114 — A proposal to use $10 million from the North Pullman TIF to construct an indoor track and field facility in Gately Park, 810 E. 103rd St.


• O2018-8116 — A proposal to use $400,000 from the Archer/Western TIF to develop a dog park at McKinley Park, 22l0 W. Pershing Road.


• O2018-8117 — A proposal to use $3 million from the Clark/Montrose TIF to renovate the fieldhouse and athletic center at Chase Park, 4701 N. Ashland Ave.


• O2018-8119 — A proposal to use $6 million from the Western Avenue South TIF to renovate the field house at Revere Park, 2509 W. Irving Park Road.


• O2018-8859 — to preserve and renovate the 122-unit Greenwood Park Apartments in Kenwood with a $2.5 million loan.


• O2018-8860 — A new 10-year management agreement with Hilton Hotels to manage the 860-room hotel on the grounds of O’Hare International Airport near Terminal 2.


• Two agreements to restructure its loan agreements (O2018-8763) with Montclare Englewood, LLC and (O2018-8238) Midwest Limited Partnership.


• O2018-8103 — A proposal to donate an obsolete city vehicle to Chicago African American Firefighters Museum.


• A2018-116 — The appointment of Richard C. Ford II as commissioner of the Chicago Fire Department


• A2015-103 — Three re-appointments to the Chicago Infrastructure Trust: Ventas CEO Debra A. Cafaro, Northern Trust Hedge Fund Services Chief Administration Officer Carl G. Lingenfelter and Miguel Zarate, a managing partner for Marquette Associates.

Julia Kuo, for Pro Publica Illinois

After he was charged in January with burglary, D’Angelo Springer had a decision to make.

Springer, 24, had been pulled over after running a stop sign in Kankakee County. He was giving a ride to an acquaintance, who had an arrest warrant in a neighboring county. When officers searched the car, according to police reports, they found a checkbook behind the passenger seat that had been taken in a car break-in. Springer denied he was involved, but he was charged with felony burglary, which could have sent him to prison.

Victims of domestic violence, identity theft and other hardships would get a 50 percent break on the additional costs city officials add to city debt, including for parking tickets and sticker violations.

A lack of quorum in the Rules Committee Friday afternoon prevented three competing ballot referenda from advancing Friday, making a hearing and vote in time to make it on February ballots unlikely.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel continued his fight to reduce the number of teens vaping, announcing a new round of legal action. The Chicago Teachers Union will hold its first mayoral candidate forum Nov. 19 — but don’t expect to see nearly two dozen candidates at the forum. Aldermen have a full slate of committees set for Tuesday, and will consider a new management agreement for the hotel on the grounds of O’Hare International Airport.

Landmark designations for Tribune Tower and the historic YMCA/YWCA building on the city’s West Side both easily passed the Zoning Committee Friday, as did a zoning change in East Andersonville designed to prevent pricey three-story condominiums from replacing two-flats and pricing out renters.

Cook County commissioners will start an extended business week by honoring several of their own during Tuesday’s meeting, including Medical Examiner Dr. Ponni Arunkumar and retiring county fixtures — Assessor Joe Berrios, Deputy Assessor Thomas Jaconetty and Clerk David Orr.

Two female volunteers collecting signatures outside a West Side polling place Friday accused a man associated with 28th Ward Ald. Jason Ervin’s organization of assaulting them on Election Day and stealing signed nominating petitions for one of the alderman’s challengers.

At a City Hall news conference, Loukessa Hawkins said she was collecting signatures for 28th Ward aldermanic candidate Justina L. Winfrey outside Spencer Technology Academy, 214 N. Lavergne Ave., when a man grabbed a half-filled petition sheet from her and several completed sheets and pamphlets from another volunteer.

“I put my clipboard and things I was holding to my chest and he began to snatch them out of my hand,” Hawkins said. “So, we were wrestling and I was like you’re not going to take my stuff and he said, ‘Gimme this ‘s’ and he snatched it down, hurting my thumb, and took it.”

Hawkins filed a police report after the incident that took place at noon on Tuesday.

“This was a direct violation of my rights,” Hawkins said, adding that she wants to see the man who assaulted her charged with a crime — as well as anyone who directed him to interfere with her efforts to get Winfrey on the ballot. “This is not how politics in Chicago should work.”

Everyone who works for Ervin’s “organization is routinely directed to be respectful and dignified in their dealings with the community,” said Tom Bowen, a spokesman for Ervin’s campaign. "We have no idea what happened here, we do not condone any violence of any sort in politics."

Hawkins posted pictures of the man who assaulted her on her Facebook page, and Bowen said the man worked for Ervin’s organization more than two years ago.

“He has not [worked for the Ervin organization] since and won't be in the future," Ervin said.

Hawkins and the other volunteer called police and filed a report, which alleges “that as they were getting petitions signed for candidates, an unknown male offender took their petitions from them and fled scene,” according to a statement from Chicago Police Department spokeswoman Laura Amezaga. “Officers toured the area to locate the offender with negative results.”

Winfrey said she was appalled that her volunteers were assaulted.

“This was a violent act toward two women in front of a school while students were in the building,” Winfrey said. “I want justice to be served.”Also running for 28th Ward alderman are Beverly Miles and Miguel Bautista. Bautista joined Winfrey at Friday’s news conference to decry all forms of political intimidation.

Aldermen will consider a measure that would allow the new owner of the Tribune Tower to alter the exterior elevations and rooflines of the first-floor lobby, while affirming the Michigan Avenue building’s landmark designation.

State Rep. LaShawn Ford  — who just won re-election to represent the West Side of Chicago in the Illinois House — announced he will run for mayor. Already announced mayoral candidate Gery Chico marked the start of the municipal election campaign in earnest, with the cycle’s first ad. In addition, the Rules Committee will try again to find a home for three questions aldermen would like to see on February ballots. With Judge

City Council’s License Committee approved a new wine and dessert bar in Ald. Danny Solis’ 25th ward, a virtual reality bar in the 47th Ward, beer sales at a new craft brewery incubator on Milwaukee Avenue in Ald. Proco Joe Moreno’s 1st ward and packaged liquor sales at the new Twisted Hippo brewery in Ald. Deb Mell’s 33rd ward.

Aldermanic and mayoral hopefuls aiming for Feb. 26 ballots have 17 more days until the city’s first filing deadline, Nov. 26.

More than 10 percent of the approximately 6,000 Inmates at Cook County Jail voted by mail in Tuesday’s General Election, a marked increase from previous elections, voting rights advocates said.

Abdelnasser Rashid, the young Our Revolution member and only Muslim candidate to run for the Cook County board, acknowledged Wednesday morning that his bid to unseat Cook County Republican Party Chairman Comm. Sean Morrison (R-17) had fallen short.

The City Council’s Committee on License and Consumer Protection is set to meet at 11 a.m. Thursday to consider 11 measures governing the sale of packaged liquor.