CHICAGO (CBS) — Another city budget hearing in Chicago was disrupted Monday afternoon when activists in the spectator gallery clashed and several people were escorted away.
Some activists held signs with pro-immigrant messages attacking newly elected President Donald Trump’s immigration czar Tom Homan. One sign read: “No more raids and no more hate, f**k your wall and f**k your borders, god damn it Tom “put kids in cages” Homan, immigrants are people,” with the social media accounts for the Revolutionary Communist Party, printed at the bottom of the board.
The people holding the signs exchanged words with members of the pro-Trump group Flip Chicago Red, who cheered as the anti-Trump protesters were escorted out one by one.
Ultimately, Mayor Brandon Johnson called a recess and asked the sergeant-at-arms to remove all members of the public from the city council chambers. He said the meeting would remain in recess until that happened.
After the gallery was cleared, the city council meeting resumed.
Councilors speak out against new budget plan
On Friday, Johnson halted his attempt to pass his revised budget plan before the debate could begin, after failing to get enough support for his latest proposal, which hinges on a property tax increase, other tax increases and minimal spending cuts.
The mayor adjourned the City Council meeting until Monday, prompting shouts from the stands as the meeting came to a close before the meeting’s traditional public comment period.
Sources told CBS News Chicago this past weekend Mayor Johnson dropped plans for a $68.5 million property tax increase.
Mayor Johnson started with a $300 million property tax proposal, which the City Council unanimously rejected. He then cut the property tax increase in half, then to $68 million and finally to zero.
Yet Ald. Marty Quinn (13th) said he would not support the budget plan — arguing that even without a property tax increase, the latest budget proposal still failed to cut unnecessary features, for example. Instead, Quinn said, the budget is full of small and large measures that affect taxpayers.
“We’ll be back here next year,” Quinn said.
Quinn also said residents of his Southwest Side neighborhood don’t believe Mayor Johnson has their backs — especially when it comes to calls for a new police district in that area.
Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) also spoke out against the budget, saying it does not reflect the needs of his community – and, like Quinn, objected to the fact that it comes with fines and fees that will impact the average Chicagoan.
“People have clearly said that we want cuts and efficiencies. Cuts and efficiencies are what people have been asking for,” Beale said. ‘But no! We want to ignore what people say.”
Beale also said those calling for cuts are being misrepresented as calling for cuts to police officers and city services.
“We have to stop this train wreck,” Beale said. “We need to stop this spending.”
Following the example of his colleagues, Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) said the mayor’s proposed property tax increase was not rejected, just postponed — because the city has a structural deficit that only continues to grow.
Ald. Nicole Lee (11th), the vice chair of the City Council Budget Committee, also said she would not support the “deeply flawed” budget proposal. She said the bottom line was that there were no more structural solutions to tackle the budget deficit.
Meanwhile, Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) called the budget a reasonable compromise. As for those challenging the mayor on tax increases, Sigcho-Lopez noted that a property tax increase was approved under Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and also mentioned the privatization of the city’s parking meters under Mayor Richard M. Daley.
Sigcho-Lopez also said Chicago is in the crosshairs of President-elect Trump’s incoming administration — in the form of both the administration’s mass deportation plan and cuts to federal funding.
Ald. Maria Hadden (49th) blasted Mayor Johnson’s administration for slowing down the process of approving a budget and ignoring or dismissing those who criticized the mayor’s plan.
“How we do things is as important as what we do, and they want you to have led this process and left the council,”
Hadden said the majority of the City Council’s Progressive Caucus, which she co-chairs, would vote in favor of the budget. But she said Mayor Johnson’s handling of the budget has resulted in the dissolution of the City Council, the people of Chicago have less confidence in city government, and represents “an utter disregard for the people’s time.”
Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th) also echoed critics, saying the budget process has left many Chicagoans less confident in their government. He said the Johnson administration had failed to work with the state of Illinois to find efficiencies, and also took the administration to task for “advocating a publicly funded private stadium” for the Chicago Bears.
Vasquez said he supports “robust city services” that require revenue, but the need for efficiency cannot be neglected. He said the budget would be approved to avoid a shutdown of the city government, but repeatedly expressed disappointment with the mayor and his handling of it.
“Chicagoans no longer have time for excuses, for empty, evasive answers and for ignorance from their mayor,” he said.
Ald. Ray Lopez (15th) said a proposal that he and fourteen other colleagues had taken the initiative to put out a call for cutting the city’s operating fund back to pre-coronavirus levels – which he said would have cut the budget by $568 million – were ignored by the Johnson administration.
He said discussions could have taken place about what all 50 of the city’s wards wanted, and how different city departments could justify why they needed more revenue — but such discussions never took place.
Instead, Lopez said, councilors were presented with a stack of budget amendments at 1 a.m. Monday, without time to properly review them.
Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) credited his colleagues for helping to reduce the budget so that a property tax increase is no longer on the table. But like his colleagues, he said the city’s structural deficit would result in a huge increase in property taxes in the future.
Reilly criticized Mayor Johnson’s budget proposal for making savings by reconfiguring savings projections and recalculating revenue projections — which he said does nothing to address the city’s long-term deficit problems.
Reilly also stood up to the group of fifteen alders who tried to balance the budget with deep cuts. Washington, Chicago’s first black mayor, 40 years ago. Reilly noted that the group of critics of the mayor’s budget represented all racial demographics and included both men and women.
“To try to turn this into something racist, classist or billionaire is nonsense,” Reilly said.
Furthermore, Reilly also said that all the critics’ suggestions were ignored.
The mayor needs 26 votes out of 50 votes to approve the budget.
