Aldermen advanced Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s 2021 spending package Thursday, setting up an up-or-down vote on the full budget next week.
After the Finance Committee on Wednesday passed the mayor’s controversial $94 million property tax increase, the Budget Committee did the same Thursday by a 26-8 margin for Lightfoot’s proposal to spend city money in the new year as part of her $12.8 billion budget.
The no votes Thursday came from Southwest Side aldermen Matt O’Shea, Marty Quinn and Silvana Tabares, downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly, North Siders Tom Tunney and Debra Silverstein, and Northwest Siders Carlos Ramirez-Rosa and Anthony Napolitano.
And there was some pushback on parts of the plan. South Side Ald. Leslie Hairston, 5th, said nonunion police officials making more than $100,000 per year should have been included in Lightfoot’s proposal to require nonunion city employees making at least that much to take five furlough days in 2021 to help close a $1.2 billion deficit.
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Budget Director Susie Park said police Superintendent David Brown argued those furloughs would have been operationally difficult for the Police Department to handle.
Lightfoot has been fighting for months to get the 26 votes she needs on the full council to achieve a majority for her budget. The 26 votes she got in the Budget Committee Thursday bodes well for her efforts, though aldermen are known to sometimes switch their votes between committee and the council, or to support spending but not a tax hike.
The City Council is set to meet Monday, at which point they are likely to take steps to vote on the entire budget at another meeting later in the week.
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