“We believe that the public, politicians, and elected officials have a duty to ensure people can eat, have housing, access education, and sustain their lives and livelihoods. We believe we can achieve that by securing guaranteed income in the city of Chicago,” said Gregory Chambers, director of the Policy Institute at the Illinois Coalition to End Punishments.

Johnson’s administration also proposed a raft of other fixes Friday, including amending a downtown ride-share congestion tax to include weekend trips, boosting the charge on garage and valet parking across the board, and doing away with a promise to continue the city’s guaranteed basic income program.

The principals union, which is in the midst of negotiating its first contract with CPS, wrote a letter this week to the Board of Education saying some CTU proposals would trample on principals’ authority to run schools. Meanwhile, the Service Employees International Union 73, which represents support staff at schools, has voiced concern over a CTU demand it says will take work away from its members — and threatened to sue the district if it approves the proposal.

The largest tax hike included in Johnson’s revised budget proposal would generate $128.1 million by an increase in the tax levied on software licenses, cloud services and other digital goods from 9 percent to 11 percent, records show. Budget Director Annette Guzman said that tax is largely paid by large corporations, like Google, Amazon and Salesforce, rather than individual Chicagoans.

The latest data showed more than 3,000 retail thefts have been reported this year in the districts that cover the Mag Mile and Oak Street shopping areas. During the 8-year tenure of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, there were 3,704 guilty verdicts in theft cases, with arrest rates for theft at 7 percent, according to the numbers shared by the State’s Attorneys office.

In interviews with several other local outlets, Emanuel maligned the Democrats’ election performance and waxed poetic about his political future. He did not rule out running for office.

A lawyer and judicial reform advocate has asked a federal appeals panel to give new life to his legal claims accusing Illinois’ largest judicial lobbying group of wrongly using its collective power to shield member judges – and particularly, the judge overseeing Cook County’s divorce and family law courts – from criticism and consequences for alleged unethical actions.

While TIF sweeps, or the use of unallocated funds within a TIF district, may provide temporary budgetary relief, these funds are one-time in nature and not guaranteed to recur every year.

“There is a history of poor choices being made in education. For one, parents are not being included in decisions that affect the same students who attend schools like Acero. We are seeing that now with the Chicago Board of Education, and previously with the board’s proposed closing of charter and selective enrollment schools, with the focus being put instead on improving neighborhood schools.”

Jason Lee is one of Johnson’s closest advisors and earns a taxpayer-funded salary of more than $189,000. But Harris County, Texas, records show Lee is an active registered voter in Texas, and cast a vote in the 2024 presidential election there. Records from the Chicago Board of Elections show Lee registered to vote in Chicago on the day of the March 2020 Democratic primary, cast a vote in that election, and had his registration canceled Sept. 6, 2023.

“The problem is the city’s mix of corporate fund revenue sources typically doesn’t grow with the economy over time.”

The CTU is part of a citywide coalition, the People’s Unity Platform, organizing and building city council support for progressive revenue options.

S&P Global Ratings released a report this week warning that the credit trajectory of the Chicago Board of Education will hinge on the outcome of current contract negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union and the willingness of the CTU and Mayor Brandon Johnson to cut expenditures at Chicago Public Schools.

The letter from 28 City Council members demands that the mayor: freeze the summer youth employment program he is determined to expand; reduce a mayor’s office staff that has ballooned under Johnson and former Mayor Lori Lightfoot to pre-pandemic levels; amd eliminate unspecified “redundancies between departments” and the mayor’s office.

The 533 homicides recorded across the city through the end of November mark a nearly 9 percent decline compared to the same time last year. That total is also nearly 19 percent below 2022’s pace and 29 percent below 2021’s pace. Also thus far in 2024, total robberies are down by 16 percent and armed robberies are down 32 percent, while motor vehicle thefts have declined by 26 percent compared to last year.

For Board of Review Commissioner George Cardenas, the issue boils down to accountability and over-reliance on property taxes, which he says must end. “This is not only a fiscal crisis — it’s a moral one,” he said.

“The city already imposes a 5-cent tax on each bottle of water. Now some city leaders are considering raising that tax by 200 percent, to 15 cents. … No other city in the nation has a bottled water tax. It is a tax that particularly punishes Black and Latino residents, who disproportionately suffer from the city’s continuing use of water service lines that are made of lead.”

David Greising, of the Better Government Association: “The aldermen are searching for savings fully aware that most of those increased costs are fixed: Pensions and interest payments, and contractual pay increases, account for a significant portion, for example.”