Mayor Lori Lightfoot will talk about Chicago’s $1 billion-plus budget shortfall — and the painful round of tax increases and budget cuts that may be required to erase it — at 6 p.m. Aug. 29 in a speech that will be carried live on “all major local TV and radio newscasts,” City Hall said Friday.
As most Chicagoans are getting ready to celebrate Labor Day weekend, Lightfoot will stand before an audience of movers and shakers at the Harold Washington Library and deliver a “State of the City” address outlining the magnitude of the shortfall she inherited from former Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
The high-stakes address will also be livestreamed on the city’s website and social media channels, along with Spanish translation.
Seeking public buy-in for the painful solutions ahead, the Lightfoot administration will host four “targeted” budget town hall meetings across the city. One will include a “youth-focused budget discussion.”
Emanuel and former Mayor Richard M. Daley also hosted public hearings on the city’s preliminary budget that frequently turned into public gripe sessions.
Three of the town hall meetings will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on weekdays — on Sept. 4 at the Corpernicus Center, 5216 W. Lawrence Ave.; Sept. 19 at Southeast United Methodist Youth and Community Center, 11731 S. Avenue O and Sept. 25 at Lindblom Math and Science Academy, 6130 S. Wolcott Ave.
The fourth town hall will be held from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday at Roberto Clemente High School, 1147 N. Western Ave.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported last week that Lightfoot would disclose a shortfall that tops $1 billion.
Earlier this week, the mayor said she needs help from the Illinois General Assembly to deliver something more than a “one-time fix.” But she refused to say what kind of help she would seek except to rule out a longer path to 90 percent funding of city pensions.
“We’re looking at three, four, five years out. We want to put things in place this year and next that are gonna make structural changes to the way that we manage our finances. That’s our obligation and responsibility to taxpayers here in the city. It’s what the rating agencies are clearly gonna be looking towards,” she said.
“But we need some support and help from Springfield and I’m confident that we’ will be able to work cooperatively with the governor and the legislative leaders to get there.”
To give the town hall meetings a “framework” and determine the spending priorities of everyday Chicagoans, City Hall will be launching a public survey at www.chicago.gov/2020budget.
