Even with the benefit of nearly $1.9 billion in federal aid from the American Rescue Plan, the city's 2021 budget season kicked off one month early as Mayor Lori Lightfoot unveiled a $733 million structural deficit. She rolled out her $16.7 billion 2022 spending plan in September to close the gap, plus a longer-range "Chicago Recovery Plan" to spend the federal funds. Following two weeks of all-day hearings and another two weeks of furious behind-the-scenes negotiations, the various budget ordinances made it through City Council committees with wide support, teeing them up for a final vote of approval on Oct. 27.

    Read The Daily Line's full coverage of budget season below. And for a cheat sheet on the budget of every single city department, see the newest addition to the CloutFiles.

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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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    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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    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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    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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    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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    One provision of the budget Management Ordinance set for approval on Friday would extend the authority of the Department of Water Management commissioner to replace the city's lead service lines. [Pexels] 

    Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s $16.7 billion budget plan is set to clear another major hurdle on Friday, as her administration’s more than 600-page budget appropriation ordinance (O2021-4238) comes up for a committee vote.

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    Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s proposed ordinances to fund next year’s spending plan are set to face a committee vote on Thursday. 

    Aldermen are set on Thursday to take an initial vote to approve the funding mechanisms for Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s proposed $16.7 billion spending plan. And while the plan may not technically include new fines, it does propose to capture revenue from hiked fines for environmental violations and a modest property tax increase.

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    A trio of aldermen are pushing for the 2022 budget plan to include a “formalized” mechanism for oversight of how the city spends nearly $2 billion in American Rescue Plan funds. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]

    Aldermen are furiously negotiating with Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration this week to finalize an array of tweaks they hope to insert into the city’s spending plan before it reaches a final vote next week.

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    Department of Public Health Comm. Allison Arwady [right] disagrees with a proposal drafted by Ald. Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez (33) and backed by more than half of the City Council to reopen shuttered public mental health clinics. 

    Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration is pushing back hard on a proposal from the City Council to reshuffle mental health spending to reopen city-backed clinics, saying the plan would veer the city off its existing path to widening psychiatric outreach.

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    Members of the City Council Latino Caucus speak during a press conference the morning of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s budget address. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

    As budget negotiations heat up, leaders of the City Council Latino Caucus are hoping their proposal for a “Hispanic Inclusion Plan” will push the city closer to racial parity among city employees, particularly those in top leadership positions.