City Council approves Lightfoot’s $11.6 billion budget — with 11 ‘no’ votes

Former Mayor Rahm Emanuel pitched a shutout in his first big game on a new field, even though his first city budget doubled water and sewer rates, raised city sticker fees, hotel and parking taxes and closed three district police stations.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s 2020 budget goes easier on taxpayers, steers clear of a massive property tax increase, but had 11 “no” votes.

There were 15 votes against her $104.2 million revenue package, which includes an $18 million property tax increase to open Chicago Public libraries on Sundays and higher taxes and fees on everything from ride-hailing, restaurant meals and recreational marijuana to cloud computing and parking meters.

Is there a message in that dissent — and a warning for a mayor who can’t appease progressive aldermen?

Not to Lightfoot, who reflected on the 32^nd anniversary of the death of Harold Washington.

“Throughout his entire time as mayor, not only were there critics in the City Council. There were also critics on the left, who said he wasn’t progressive enough. He didn’t move fast enough. He didn’t do things in the way that they wanted him to do,” the mayor said.

“There are always gonna be critics. But what I know is, we needed 26 votes and we got 39.”

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

Lightfoot stuck to the script — and pulled a cigar out of her pocket — when asked how long she can stave off a massive property tax increase, despite coming up empty in Springfield.

“What I’m gonna do today is enjoy this victory. I’m going to later smoke this cigar, probably have a little Scotch and welcome my mother home for Thanksgiving. The out-years will take care of themselves. Obviously, we think about it. But this is a day to celebrate. And I’m gonna do that,” said the mayor, before celebrating with a pizza party that included aldermen who voted “yes.”

The 11 aldermen who voted against the budget are: Daniel LaSpata (1st); Anthony Beale (9th); Ray Lopez (15th); Jeanette Taylor (20th); Mike Rodriguez (22nd); Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th); Rosanna Rodriguez Sanchez (33rd); Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th); Andre Vasquez (40th); Matt Martin (47th) and Maria Hadden (49th).

Aldermen Brian Hopkins (2nd); Brendan Reilly (42nd); Anthony Napolitano (41st) and James Gardiner (45th) joined those 11 in opposing a $72 million property tax increase that includes $7 million for City Colleges, $32 million to retire a general obligation bond issue and the $18 million for libraries.

Hours before the vote, the City Council’s six-member socialist caucus had announced it would vote as a bloc against Lightfoot’s first budget at the behest of United Working Families, the Grassroots Collaborative and the Chicago Teachers Union.

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times file

In a statement, and later on the Council floor, socialist aldermen accused the mayor of underfunding social services, overfunding police and breaking her campaign promise to re-open shuttered mental health clinics and tax wealthy corporations and non-profits to pay for it.

“As an immigrant myself, who came to this country when I was 17 years old, I see the importance of ... public education, mental health services, affordable housing. Without those safety nets, I wouldn’t be here in front of you today. And that is why I’m not satisfied with this budget,” Sigcho-Lopez said.

The socialist caucus further argued the budget includes no “new and dedicated revenue streams,” and relies on one-time funding sources, including: the largest tax increment financing surplus in Chicago history; a $1.5 billion refinancing with all $210 million in savings claimed up-front and a $93 million clawback from the Chicago Public Schools for pension and security costs previously covered by the city.

Lightfoot is also counting on $150 million in unspecified cuts from “zero-based budgeting” and $163 million by raising ambulance fees paid by private insurers and getting federal approval for reimbursements administered by the state for ambulance transports for low-income patients on Medicaid.

That hasn’t happened yet. Lightfoot has said she’s “very confident” the feds will green-light the ambulance plan, despite her attacks on President Donald Trump.

Sun-Times file photo

Beale didn’t buy it.

“This is a budget with a bunch of holes that will have to be filled” at a later date because it’s “filled with smoke and mirrors,” Beale said.

Beale chided colleagues before the vote, saying warning signs ahead will demand they return and approve a “massive” property tax increase.

“This is not a legislative body. This is a go-along body.”

Speaking from the rostrum, Lightfoot declared the 2020 budget a “progressive blueprint for the future.” But when she highlighted her companion plan to raise Chicago’s minimum wage to $15-an-hour by 2021, a protester rose in the gallery to complain she had “left out” tipped workers.

As the protester tried to shout down the mayor, Lightfoot called for “guards” to remove the man.

“Thank you for being able to express yourself. But now, you must leave,” she said.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Afterwards, the mayor denied the 11 protest votes spell trouble for her down the road as she prepares to honor her campaign promise to end aldermanic prerogative over zoning.

She noted most aldermen who voted against her budget “actually ran on eliminating aldermanic prerogative.”

“We could have gotten more votes. But that would have meant I’d have to deviate from the way that I intend to govern. … I’m not gonna put a Christmas tree out with presents underneath with individual names,” said Lightfoot, who found $1.25 million to increase the annual aldermanic expense allowance.

“We … received the support of 39 aldermen on the merits — not because we promised individual favors to particular aldermen. ... However other mayors did their business, that’s on them. But I know what I need to do. And by governing on the merits with transparency and integrity, that frees us up to do the right thing and to make the tough calls.”

Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th), Lightfoot’s City Council floor leader, acknowledged Chicago desperately needs “new and sustainable revenues” to meet its “growing obligations without imposing another significant property tax hike” on Chicago residents and businesses.

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times file

Villegas exhorted his colleagues to stop complaining and start legislating.

“You’ve got to introduce your legislation, get the support and, ultimately, have it voted on. That’s the process. To sit here and talk about, `You want this and you want that’ — that’s not the process,” Villegas said.

Villegas promised to hold “subject matter hearings” next year on some of the progressive revenue ideas aldermen have suggested.

“Remember this: The mayor has been in office for six months. This budget here addresses a lot of the core issues that we all ran on.”

Standard & Poor’s acknowledged the tenuous nature of the mayor’s budget — and the importance of winning legislative approval for a stalled casino gambling fix and a graduated real estate transfer tax — in affirming its BBB+ rating on the city’s general obligation bonds.

“If the city is able to garner legislative support for new revenue streams in the Illinois spring legislative session, we expect that it will be able to make notable progress toward closing the gap,” the rating agency said.

“Should these revenues not come to fruition, our outlook is predicated on the city’s willingness to execute alternative structural measures such as a property tax increase. Chicago’s ongoing ability within the next year to demonstrate a credible path to structural balance, including fully funding its pension ramp by 2022, will be critical to our rating analysis.”

Also on Wednesday, the City Council voted 45-to-5 to approve Lightfoot’s plan to stop impounding vehicles with marijuana inside and reduce fines for those caught smoking or ingesting weed in public.

The ordinance was salvaged in committee, only after being re-written on the fly. The new version softens language that, West Side Ald. Jason Ervin (28th) feared, would have driven “a Mack truck through” the Chicago Police Department’s ability to “do impoundment for other serious narcotics” by eliminating impoundment of vehicles used to transport less than 30 grams of marijuana.

Fran Spielman/Sun-Times

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times file