“While Stacey Davis-Gates draws much of the attention, as it is her style to attack any critics of herself or her policies as being racist, Boss (Toni) Preckwinkle deliberately maintains a low profile. This pose helps Ms. Preckwinkle evade much-deserved criticism. The goal of the Preckwinkle machine is to acquire and exercise absolute power and control in which her agenda goes unchallenged.”

Martinez also told alderpeople that no cuts are planned for this school year, but the district would have to resort to them if it doesn’t get additional revenue or doesn’t borrow money. “What I am asking for — for the record, alders — is to protect the investments that have went to our highest poverty schools, many schools on the South and West side,” Martinez said.

“I can’t begin to frame my frustration that there are no members of the Board of Education here, none of the outgoing members, none of the incoming members. They were all invited,” Ald. Matt O’Shea said. “They have a responsibility, a responsibility to look out for the 325,000 students across the Chicago public school system.” Ald. Gil Villegas suggested school board members didn’t come to the meeting because Mayor Johnson directed them not to.

Henyard, who was elected mayor in 2021, is currently involved in a lawsuit she filed against several village trustees, the Dolton Park District, the village clerk, and the village administrator. And an independent investigation led by former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot revealed that Dolton’s general fund balance dropped from $5.61 million in April 2022 to a deficit of $3.65 million by May 2024.

“Federal pandemic era money papered over a long-building fiscal cliff in City government and adjacent sister agencies,” Civic Federation President Joe Ferguson said. “Rather than using the federal assistance to begin a generationally overdue reset, the City and some sister agencies expanded programs and staffing without identifying sustainable future revenue streams to support them. The wind down of pandemic-era funding is now syncing up with the harsh reality of sharply increased overhead. We knew this day was coming.”

Among the belt-tightening options are requiring city employees to take one unpaid day off every two weeks, cutting city executives’ pay by 10 percent, eliminating more than 3,000 dormant city vacancies and suspending both non-critical capital spending and a supplemental pension payment that, in 2024, amounted to $307 million.

Though the new Bears stadium is being proposed for Downtown, former Gov. Pat Quinn asserts that his survey of West Side voters will be representative of the wider city.“It involves the taxpayer money of everyone in the city of Chicago,” Quinn said. “Wherever you live, people have an interest in how the investment of the taxpayer money is going to be used.”

The 20th-day enrollment figures show 325,305 students currently enrolled – an increase of .64 percent, or more than 2,000 students compared to the previous year. Nevertheless, overall district enrollment remains significantly below where it stood a decade ago. For the 2014-15 school year, CPS had more than 396,000 students. The year before that, district enrollment topped 400,000.

After accounting for upcoming obligations, the city decides annually how much extra TIF money to surplus. Surplus TIF revenues are divvied up proportionally to each taxing district: CPS is the biggest beneficiary. Mayor Brandon Johnson’s 2024 budget included a record TIF surplus of $433.8 million, over half of which went to CPS. The city’s cut of that was $100 million.

A new law allows inspectors general to ask that officers be defrocked for verified excessive force, tampering with official body or dash cam footage, evidence tampering and lying, and any other unprofessional or unethical conduct harmful to the public. At least a dozen CPD officers had been linked to the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and other anti-government, sometimes racist, extremist groups, but allowed to stay on the job.

Former President Donald Trump sat down with Bloomberg Editor-In-Chief John Micklethwait for an interview in partnership with the Economic Club of Chicago – where he knocked several tough questions out of the park, while starting – and ending, with a standing ovation.

That massive gambling emporium is supposed to eventually generate around $1 billion in annual revenue — with a $200 million cut for the city’s police and firefighter pension funds — under lofty projections set by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Over its first 12 months at the temporary Medinah Temple site, Bally’s turned out a modest $124.6 million in revenue; That generated $14.4 million for the city. Mayor Brandon Johnson has bet just as heavily on the temporary casino since taking office, anticipating $35 million in casino tax revenue in his first budget.