As Mayor Lori Lightfoot prepared to address Chicagoans on Thursday evening about the city’s looming near-$1 billion budget deficit, advocates for the homeless urged her to keep campaign promises to help fight homelessness.
The mayor’s 100th day in office on Wednesday also brought calls from progressive aldermen for Lightfoot to make the wealthy contribute more to closing the massive budget shortfall she is set to address in her citywide speech. Fail to do enough to “tax the rich,” they said, and she risks losing their support in passing a 2020 budget.
Activists with the Bring Chicago Home coalition, which advocates for homeless people, protested outside a celebration and roundtable discussion marking Lightfoot’s milestone in office, which she hosted at Kenwood Academy on the South Side. Members of the group said they are concerned Lightfoot won’t keep a campaign pledge to hike the real estate transfer tax on expensive homes and use the money to fight homelessness.
In July, Lightfoot said she might raise the real estate transfer tax on expensive property sales to help close the expected 2020 budget hole.
Standing in front of signs criticizing the mayor, including one emblazoned with “Lori Lightfoot’s Broken Promise,” the group’s associate director of policy and strategy, Mary Tarullo, said the budget shortfall isn’t an excuse for Lightfoot to reverse course on the promise.
“The mayor knew about the budget shortfall when she was running for mayor. We all knew about the budget shortfall, and she still committed to bring Chicago home,” Tarullo said. “We expect her to follow through on the commitments she made to us through the campaign.”
When Lightfoot took office and prepared her 2020 budget, it was expected she would have to come up with a combined $528 million in tax increases and budget cuts. But in May, officials in former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration predicted the shortfall would be closer to $700 million because of costs previously covered with expensive borrowing practices and the city’s pension investments’ poor performance at the end of 2018 as the stock market dipped.
Lightfoot has previously disputed the Emanuel administration’s budget hole estimate, saying it’s even worse.
Though the Lightfoot administration has not shared the official projected budget deficit, the mayor has said it is more than previously expected. Asked about the shortfall’s growth, Tarullo said, “I think we all knew the budget shortfall was enormous.”
At a news conference later, Lightfoot responded to criticism from the group by noting homelessness is still a priority.
“God bless America, people have the right to exercise their First Amendment rights, but sometimes people say things that aren’t accurate,” Lightfoot said.
There’s a difference of opinion about whether or not funds from a potential real estate transfer tax hike should be used “100 percent” to fight homelessness and housing instability, Lightfoot said, adding that she’s still committed to those issues.
“I don’t have any illusions, not just in the first 100 days but ever, that I’m going to be able to please everyone on every single issue,” Lightfoot said. “That’s not life, that’s not realistic, that’s not democracy.”
Still, adding to the chorus of voices publicly calling on Lightfoot to live up to progressive campaign promises as she hits the 100-day mark, a handful of aldermen said they want her to find ways to tax the rich instead of leaning on struggling Chicagoans to fill the city’s 2020 budget hole. If she doesn’t, they’ll all vote against the spending package, they said.
Lightfoot administration officials told aldermen “they’re going to keep us in suspense” about the exact size of the budget hole the mayor will detail in her Thursday evening speech, said Southeast Side Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza, 10th. It’s expected to be “somewhere between $750 million and $1 billion,” Sadlowski Garza said.
Northwest Side Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 35th, said he doesn’t want the mayor to ask people all across Chicago to pull together to deal with the massive 2020 shortfall.
“The rumor that I’ve heard is that the theme of tomorrow’s speech is shared pain, and that’s certainly what I don’t want to hear, because my constituents have been feeling the pain for a very long time,” he said. “What we’re hoping to hear tomorrow is that the mayor is serious about moving forward on progressive revenue, things that past administrations have ruled out as unfeasible because it asks the rich and powerful — and many times their donors — to pay their fair share.”
The aldermen said they would like to see Lightfoot reinstate the corporate head tax that Emanuel phased out, or to press Springfield to approve a long-discussed “LaSalle Street tax” on financial transactions to close the budget hole, rather than again calling for a huge property tax increase as Emanuel did.
Asked about the concerns raised by the aldermen, the mayor’s office released a statement that said, “While we have made important strides in bringing transformative change to Chicago by enacting landmark reforms, policies and legislation — our work has just begun, and we will continue to partner with residents, community leaders, elected officials, and other stakeholders as we look forward. The mayor has been clear that this continued effort must be guided by our core principles of equity and inclusion, and that we must do everything we can to drive growth and investment for the neighborhoods, families and individuals who have been neglected for far too long.”
At a separate event, Southwest Side Ald. Raymond Lopez, 15th, was critical of the administration for not yet giving aldermen an exact figure.
“You can’t have a real discussion without starting from an honest point of truth. The fact we’re told, well, it’s going to be more than this but we’re not going to tell you what it is … it’s just not very conducive to having an actual conversation.”
Lopez also said the “hybrid ‘State of the City’/budget speech” is an unwelcome departure from the way aldermen typically receive this information in City Council chambers.
“This is kind of a new version of life for us: part theater, part made for TV and part governance,” Lopez said. “I’m not particularly a fan of it.”
Exactly how Lightfoot addresses the budget shortfall may end up being politically unpopular. Raising taxes is a delicate dance anywhere, but particularly in Chicago, where even Lightfoot as a candidate said the tax burden is forcing residents out of the city.
Also on Wednesday, Lightfoot held a panel discussion marking her 100th day as mayor that featured several high-ranking administration officials.
During introductory remarks before the panel, Lightfoot said she wants to tackle disinvestment on the South and West sides.
Lightfoot choked back tears as she talked about some of the encounters she’s had as mayor with young people in neighborhoods.
“I have seen firsthand what is lost when a young person can’t see how great their potential is. It’s hard for me to go in the neighborhoods and see our kids and worry about what’s going to happen with them when I leave. I take that with me every single day,” Lightfoot said. “As a mother, I know we must ensure that our kids can see a bold and bright future for themselves, no matter their background or their ZIP code.”
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