Lightfoot to deliver first budget address as striking teachers chant outside City Hall

Tele-prompters were already in place on Tuesday for Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s budget address Wednesday in the City Council chambers. The doors were locked Tuesday, allowing the mayor to practice her speech without media scrutiny. | Fran Spielman/Sun-Times

With striking teachers expected to be chanting outside City Hall, Mayor Lori Lightfoot will take the wraps off Wednesday on a 2020 budget that counts on a one-time fix, unpopular tax and fee hikes and a Springfield rescue to erase an $838 million shortfall — without raising property taxes.

The Chicago Teachers Union strike, nearly a week old with no end in sight, is hardly the ideal backdrop for a rookie mayor’s first budget address.

But Lightfoot’s “not-on-my-watch” promise to avoid a strike fell short. The package she has offered and concessions she has made have not been enough to end it.

As a result, Lightfoot will take the rostrum in the City Council chambers with teleprompters in front of her and controversy swirling around her.

Lightfoot might even have to speak up to be heard over chanting strikers whose disciplined union has, so far, been winning the public relations war.

Will the circus-like atmosphere overshadow her message?

“That depends on what you in the media focus on. I don’t control that narrative,” she said.

“The city has a lot of other issues beyond the teachers strike. Obviously, that’s an important thing and that’s animated the narrative. But we have work to be done in the city and we’re continuing to do that. … Yes, there’s a teachers strike. But the business of the city must and does and will go on.”

Striking Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU Local 73 members rally on the picket line outside Oscar DePriest Elementary School on the West Side Tuesday morning.

The biggest unanswered question about the mayor’s budget after more than a week of selected leaks is how large the dreaded property tax increase will be if Lightfoot comes up empty during the Illinois General Assembly’s fall veto session.

One alderman, who asked to remain anonymous, emerged from his closed-door briefing believing a property tax increase could range from $50 million to $150 million.

Lightfoot, still playing her cards close to the vest, made no apologies for leaving a giant hole in a city budget she’s required by law to balance on her own.

The mayor wants a graduated real estate transfer tax and a casino gambling fix — either through city-state ownership of a Chicago casino or a revised tax structure. Both already face long odds in Springfield amid a blockbuster corruption scandal that has spread from Chicago and the south suburbs to Springfield.

“It’s unusual, but I wouldn’t characterize it as a hedge. It’s not a hedge when you’re really transparent about what the options are, but also what the consequences are if those options don’t come through,” the mayor said.

“We need help from Springfield. I’m not shy about making that case, nor will I be. ... I know it’s incumbent upon us to convince legislators to help us fix the tax rate regarding casinos. ... It’s also on our plate to convince legislators that a real estate transfer tax is in their best interest to help support the Chicago economy and help us deal with structural budget issues. The burden is on us. I accept that burden.”

Yet another unanswered question is whether Lightfoot plans to re-open any of the six mental health centers closed by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Aldermen from across the city are so intent on re-opening the clinics, they recently held up Lightfoot’s appointment of Dr. Allison Arwady as health commissioner because Arwady refused to make that commitment and even defended the closings.

A protest by patients and advocates outside the Woodlawn Mental Health Clinic in 2012; the clinic was among those eventually closed by the city. | John H. White~Sun-Times.

But during an interview with the Sun-Times last week, the mayor hinted strongly that at least some of the clinics will not be reopened.

“The level of trauma that people are experiencing in this city is profound — and particularly our young people. ... We need to have a community-based network of care,” Lightfoot said.

“Some people are not ever gonna go to a clinic. Some people prefer to have private doctors. Some people are comfortable in a community-based setting that’s kind of a mix of the two. We have to have a menu of choices at the neighborhood level that meet the needs of a full range of people who are experiencing challenges in their life.”

Even if Springfield comes through enough to avert another property tax increase, which Emanuel more than doubled, Lightfoot’s budget is in for a rough ride in an increasingly restive City Council.

Her congestion-reduction plan, which would triple the tax on Uber and Lyft passengers riding solo to and from downtown — and slap a 74% increase on ride-hailing trips in the neighborhoods — has taken a beating on social media.

Her plan to raise the Chicago tax on restaurant meals by one-quarter of one percent will push the total tax on downtown restaurant bills to 10.75 percent. Illinois Restaurant Association President Sam Toia said that might be just enough to convince suburban diners to eat out closer to home.

The mayor also plans to raise parking meter rates, frozen since 2013. But higher rates would be unpopular, and besides, she’d have to pocket the money, instead of forwarding it to Chicago Parking Meters LLC — an idea on shaky legal ground.

The widely-despised long-term lease on city parking meters, with 65 years left, has this clause: “The Concessionaire shall, during the Term, have the right to collect and retain all of the Metered Parking Revenue derived from the Concession Metered Parking Spaces, and the right to pledge and assign such Metered Parking Revenues as security for any indebtedness incurred by the Concessionaire.”

A private operator, Chicago Parking Meters LLC, has leased the city’s parking meters and collects all the revenue. It made an up-front payment to the city at the beginning of the 75-year lease, which still has 65 years left to run.

And the Civic Federation is none too happy about Lightfoot’s plan to refinance $1.3 billion in city debt and take the entire $200 million savings up-front.

“The fact that they’re going to be using the [sales tax] securitization vehicle does create some concerns for how they’re going to make do without that revenue in the future,” Civic Federation President Laurence Msall said Tuesday.

“And if they are taking all of the savings over the life of the bonds all in the first year, that certainly is not best practice and creates real questions as to how you’re going to pay that debt service next year and in future years.”

Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36^th), Lightfoot’s City Council floor leader, was asked how tough it will be to round up the 26 votes for a tax-laden budget with a property tax looming over it.

“If it does come to that, we’ll have to see how high. … I haven’t talked to the members about that yet because I’m focused on Springfield,” Villegas said Tuesday.

“This is going to be a challenging budget. The fact that we’re $838 million [in the hole]. We’re relying on Springfield for some assistance. The issue going on with CPS and CTU. There’s just a lot of balls in the air. I’ve got to try to figure out how to land this plane.”