As the city gets set to borrow $518 million for infrastructure projects and $92 million more toward Mayor Brandon Johnson’s massive affordable housing plan, aldermen and the mayor’s team argued Tuesday over which of them are to blame for recent credit downgrades that will end up costing taxpayers more.

“There is a process in which the collection of the grocery tax is now being placed in the responsibility of municipalities, right?” the mayor said at a City Hall news conference. “So it was a function that the state of Illinois decided to relinquish, and leave it to the cities to collect the tax. So we’re not creating a grocery tax, we’re just creating a process by which we can collect it.”

The Office of Inspector General also found that police don’t typically conduct routine residency verifications or other proactive missions necessary to enforce the ordinance and the city rarely seeks to enforce penalties for ordinance violations.

“There’s been some conversations about a millionaires’ tax and other forms of progressive taxation that challenges the ultra-rich to pay their fair share,” Johnson said. “I think that it’s important that, you know, we come up with solutions that are sustainable, and that they don’t overwhelm, you know, the pocketbooks of working people.”

Chicago needs a sales tax on professional services, a local version of the state-eliminated 1% grocery tax, and a greater share of state income and personal property replacement taxes to close its $1.12 billion budget gap, top mayoral aides said Tuesday.

Respondents said the city is a good place to grow old, showing confidence in affordability, aging and safety. But some were concerned that the city’s reputation and identity is getting worse.

In a post on X, U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik cited “concerning reports” about Dr. Mkhaimar Abusada, a Palestinian political scientist and visiting professor at Northwestern University, who is also an associate professor at Al-Azhar University of Gaza. She accused him of “affiliations with terror-linked organizations” and “defense of Hamas violence,” among other things.

Terence Crayton’s boss, communications director Erin Connelly, wrote in an April 29 memo that two of her staffers alerted her about the firearm and after that, a third employee reported that Crayton had mentioned carrying a firearm to previous mayoral events “at his own personal discretion.” That employee said they reported Crayton to his former boss, Ronnie Reese, but Reese “did not report the incident or issue any report or disciplinary action.”

Johnson dismissed the idea that his leadership choices hampered the CTA’s cause in Springfield; “It’s a poor analysis,” the mayor said. Further, he did not betray a position on the specifics of the delivery tax or the governance changes in the transit proposal that fell apart in the House this weekend. He instead focused on saying the state needs to tax the “ultra-rich.”

“Let’s be clear: Legitimate claims of wrongful conviction, abuse, and official misconduct deserve redress. But the scale, scope, and timing of this year’s deluge defy all proportionality. The system has become a gravy train for lawyers, a reputational black eye for law enforcement, and an existential threat to the city’s financial stability.”

“After the Civil Rights victories, many folks on the South Side of Chicago expected things to get better. It was already a solid working class community with a grocery store, a delicatessen, and other small businesses. Instead the liberal policies that came out of the post-60s era nuked us into a devastating culture of dependency.”

In footage circulating on social media, a Chicago Police Department squad car is also visible. CPD issued the following statement in response: “An officer was en route to court and observed law enforcement activity. Upon learning this activity was related to civil immigration enforcement, the officer immediately left the scene. At no point did the officer assist in immigration enforcement.”

Last spring, the Illinois attorney general’s Charitable Trust Bureau launched a probe of the foundation surrounding potential conflicts of interest, unauthorized spending and missing board input on a potential major revamp of the nonprofit.

The ordinance would bar Evanston police from transferring an individual into the custody of another jurisdiction unless the crime charged would also be a criminal offense under Illinois law, and it requires the city’s Department of Health and 311 service to provide callers with information and resources on reproductive or gender-affirming health care,

The billionaire owner of the Chicago Fire FC has agreed to spend $650 million of his own money to bankroll a 22,000-seat, soccer-only stadium on the vacant South Loop parcel, but tens of millions of public dollars would be needed to ready the long-dormant site for development.