Billionaire Subsidy Passed, BTW it's just TIF Money

Finance Committee approves $425M subsidy for site that includes Fire stadium

Political pushback preceded a pair of lopsided votes for bankrolling infrastructure for a South Loop project led by billionaire team owner Joe Mansueto. Some questioned using TIF dollars to build a parking garage.




The 78 development site, a stretch land south of Roosevelt Road and west of Clark Street in the South Loop, got the green light from a City Council committee for $425 million to subsidize public infrastructure.

Despite myriad concerns, a City Council committee Monday overwhelmingly approved a $425 million tax increment financing subsidy to bankroll the public improvements needed to support a South Loop development anchored by a new soccer stadium privately financed by the Chicago Fire.

DEI Grifters Make TREMENDOUS Amounts Of TAXPAYER Money!

Trump Lists BILLIONS In Waste Discovered By DOGE As Liberals PROTEST!

LIVE | KAROLINE LEAVITT RAIN FIRE ON BIDEN, Shocking Details of Medicare...

We should all reflect upon the cost of this monument and who is paying for it, don't you know

Chicago to be home of global COVID-19 monument to honor victims, frontline workers

The illuminated, 25-foot, stainless steel monument in the Illinois Medical District could be completed later this year.
By Joanna Marszałek
Feb 10, 2025, 5:30am CST




A rendering of the COVID-19 Memorial Monument of Honor, Remembrance & Resilience that will be built on the Near West Side to honor those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID Monument Commission based on concept by Casey Schachner

Patronage?

Johnson administration has hired hundreds amid hiring freeze
The city of Chicago has hired or promoted 490 people, mostly in the police department, since a freeze was instituted in September, a WBEZ analysis shows.
By Tessa Weinberg | WBEZ, Mariah Woelfel | WBEZ and Amy Qin | WBEZ
Oct 29, 2024, 5:00am CDT



The city has hired or promoted 490 employees in the six weeks since Mayor Brandon Johnson announced a hiring freeze, with the Chicago Police Department seeing the most new hires.

The employment data, obtained by WBEZ through an open records request, includes 268 new hires through Oct. 21. In all, the hires and promotions total roughly $31.4 million in annual salaries — a fraction of the $223 million end-of-year deficit and $982.4 million budget gap for 2025.

The mayor’s administration announced the hiring freeze Sept. 9 in an effort to close the immediate 2024 deficit spurred by underperforming revenue and a disputed Chicago Public Schools pension payment.

$80,000.00

Chicago spent more than $80K to renovate, furnish office for First Lady Johnson
Invoices and receipts uncovered by NBC 5 Investigates are raising questions about why during a time of financial crisis the city spent more than $80,000 redecorating and renovating an office in the Chicago Cultural Center for First Lady Stacie Johnson.

By Bennett Haeberle, Lisa Capitanini and Katy Smyser • Published October 10, 2024 •Updated on October 10, 2024 at 6:45 pm


Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson told reporters this week that “everything is on table,” including the potential layoff of city workers, which Johnson said he hopes to avoid, as the city grapples with how to address a nearly billion-dollar budget shortfall. NBC Chicago’s Bennett Haeberle reports.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson told reporters this week that "everything is on table," including the potential layoff of city workers, which Johnson said he hopes to avoid, as the city grapples with how to address a nearly billion-dollar budget shortfall.

But invoices and receipts uncovered by NBC 5 Investigates are raising questions about why during a time of financial crisis did the city spend more than $80,000 redecorating and renovating an office in the Chicago Cultural Center for First Lady Stacie Johnson.

Chicago Spent $400M On Migrants In 2 YEARS! Where's The Money?

How about sending the unused funds back to the U.S. government? Considering the debt problem, wouldn't that be the honorable way to go?

Johnson administration finally moves to spend $374 million in leftover federal COVID relief funds
A question remains: What’s the plan for funding these initiatives once the pandemic money runs out?
By CST Editorial Board
May 1, 2024, 6:30am CDT




Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration moved to this week to allocate and spend $374 million in leftover federal pandemic relief funds.

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration this week says it will finally get to dedicating and spending the remaining $374 million of the $1.9 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funding the city received in 2021.

The released cash can cover a range of vital services including homeless prevention, mental health and community safety. City officials say they will even restart the guaranteed income pilotprogram that paid 5,000 low income Chicagoans $500 a month.

This is all OK to us. Besides, the city has to allocate the funding by the end of 2024 and spend it by the close of 2026, or else the federal government will snatch it back.

A question remains, though: What’s the plan for funding these initiatives once the pandemic money runs out?

The city didn’t say. And while it’s good to know the cash will be spent, it would have been even better if the city could have also told us how it intends to pay for the programs — either some or all of them — once the federal gravy train ends.

And while we’ve supported the guaranteed income program from the start, we’d like to see some robust analysis — not just anecdotes — from the city, telling us who was helped.

Such information could possibly help tamp down criticism that the program is nothing more than some socialist giveaway.

The data also might be helpful in determining how, and if, the initiative continues.

And if it does continue, the city has to be handling things far more timely and efficiently.

“We certainly should have spent the bulk of this money by now, when the pandemic was raging,” Ald. Matt Martin (47th) told WTTW last February. “We have to take a hard look at why we let millions of dollars sit on the shelf while people were suffering.”

Johnson administration officials said allocating and handing out the $374 million funds was delayed by red tape in the city’s contracting process, occasions when there were a lack of vendors available to launch a program and a change in federal guidelines.

Fair enough. But it’s now the city’s job to iron out these problems and better provide those services.

For now, at least the federal money on hand will be getting out of the door.

Here’s hoping the funds are treated as a down payment on the kind of vital and sustainable community change the city is willing to see and fund long after the pandemic money is spent.

Former Dolton police chief exposes Mayor Tiffany Henyard's alleged misuse of police detail

By Dane Placko
Published February 6, 2024 4:28PM


Doltons former top cop exposes Mayor Tiffany Henyards alleged misuse of police detail

A former south suburban police chief is shedding light on the actions of embattled Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard, accusing her of misusing a police security detail that has cost taxpayers thousands of dollars in overtime.

DOLTON - The former police chief of south suburban Dolton is speaking out for the first time about Mayor Tiffany Henyard’s controversial police security detail, and how it affected his ability to fight crime.

In 2023, a FOX 32 investigation showed how that security detail is taking officers off the street and costing taxpayers thousands of dollars in overtime.

That's too much money!

Ex-Chicago top cop Fred Waller staying on at CPD as a ‘deputy director’ — with combined annual pay and pension reaching $333,323
Waller, a self-described “old school” former cop, is now a top deputy to Supt. Larry Snelling, who is refining his plans for the city’s policing.
By Chip Mitchell | WBEZ




Chicago police Supt. Larry Snelling (right) stands with then-interim police Supt. Fred Waller (left) after the City Council confirmed Snelling on Sept. 27.

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration is keeping a self-described “old school” former cop within arm’s reach of new Police Supt. Larry Snelling, who is in charge of forging a slew of long-delayed reforms.

Fred Waller, who served four months as interim police superintendent over the summer, is now a “deputy director in the superintendent’s office,” said police department spokesman Tom Ahern, who declined to elaborate on Waller’s responsibilities in that post.

With crime a top issue in the city, each move tied to Snelling is under scrutiny to see what it might say about policing strategies as he establishes himself as the department’s leader.

Waller, 62, is set to receive $181,788 per year in his new CPD job, according to city records. As a civilian, additionally he will continue receiving a police pension totaling $151,535 a year, according to a Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago record obtained by WBEZ.

Waller served 34 years as a sworn cop before retiring in August 2020. Reaching the rank of chief, his top salary was $185,364.

Worth $500 K per year?

Chicago State president snares $50K bonus despite university’s claim of financial strain during faculty strike
In a recording posted last week, Chicago State board chair Andrea Zopp justifies the bonus to Zaldwaynaka Scott in part by citing her handling of the strike this year.
By Lisa Philip | WBEZ
Aug 31, 2023, 5:30am CDT

You have to pay her $500,000 a year or else private industry would snatch her up, and the school would be leaderless and the poor children......don't you know.



Zaldwaynaka “Z” Scott, president of Chicago State University, has a total compensation package of more than $500,000 annually.

During a faculty strike this year, Chicago State University’s administration said “significant financial strain” prevented leaders from meeting professors’ salary demands. But last month the Far South Side university’s president, Zaldwaynaka Scott, was awarded a $50,000 bonus, bringing her total compensation for the year to more than $500,000.

Watch Teacher's Union Head Fume as She Realizes That DeSantis Is Winning...

$30,000 a pop? Seems like the work is going to Beetlejuice campaign contrbutors.

Lightfoot’s plan to replace Chicago’s lead water pipes has switched out 280 of an estimated 390,000 service lines, because Lightfoot is totally incapable of running anything
Only 280 Chicago homeowners have had a lead service line replaced under city programs the past two years — out of an estimated 390,000 lead lines, the most in any city in the United States.
By Brett Chase



Angela McGhee didn’t trust the purity of the water flowing from the faucets of her Chatham home. So she signed up for a city program that replaced her lead pipe connecting to a city water main.


Anthony Vazquez / Sun-Times



Angela McGhee never trusted the tap water flowing from the faucets of her more than century-old

Be sure to vote Democratic.....every day

 

Substack: Why Illinois Is In Trouble – 132,188 Public Employees With $100,000 Paychecks Cost Taxpayers $17 Billion

October 29, 2022 09:29 AM

By Adam Andrzejewski

So, just who is making all of this money?

Meet the Illinois government employee $100,000 Club. It's comprised of 132,188 public employees and retirees who earned a new ‘minimum wage’ of $100,000 or more.

 

While crime skyrockets in the

A very good value indeed. But for the pay hike, they wouls seek employment in private industry and then the taxpayers would be f------.

City clerk, treasurer defend 20.5% pay hikes
The annual salaries for the two positions have been frozen at $133,545 since 2005. Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s proposed budget includes pay raises for both citywide elected officials while keeping the mayor’s salary at $216,210.
By Fran Spielman




Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s proposed city budget includes pay hikes for City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin and City Clerk Ana M. Valencia.


Risking a preelection backlash, City Clerk Anna Valencia and City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin said Friday they will accept the 20.5% raises — to $161,016 — that Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s 2023 budget includes for those two jobs.



Seventeen of Chicago’s 50 City Council members have declined a 9.62% raise, tied to inflation, that would boost the maximum annual salary for an alderperson to $142,772.

Some alderpersons may fear how it might look to the voters many will face in the election Feb. 28 if they accept the raises.

Conyears-Ervin apparently has no such fears — though she said she is “very sensitive to inflation. We all feel it.”

Under questioning Friday at council budget hearings, Conyears-Ervin noted the annual salary for the clerk and treasurer has been $133,545 since 2005 and state law requires elected officials’ raises be approved before the election.

During that same period, the maximum aldermanic salary has risen from $95,000 to $142,000, the treasurer said.

“That’s a 50% increase over the past 16, 17 years. So while the clerk and treasurer’s role has an adjustment, it’s certainly well below — well below — a 50% increase,” said Conyears-Ervin, whose husband, Ald. Jason Ervin (28th), is among those accepting the aldermanic raise.

“If there was no increase, there would be five employees of mine that would make more than I. Even with this increase, these two gentlemen to my right will still make more than I.”

Valencia was equally unapologetic.



“If the ordinance passes, which is up to the aldermen in this body, I will accept it,” the clerk said.

“I love the work. I do the work like all of you. And I felt ... whatever [everyone] felt was fair and equitable, I was going to agree to. … So whether it’s me, and I’m lucky enough to be the city clerk, or the next clerk, it would be a fair adjustment.”

Downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) put both women on the spot about the raises after noting “17 of us here decided to forego our raises, and three of us have an ordinance pending that would prohibit any commissioner or elected official” from getting a raise next year.

“With the cost of inflation right now and many people struggling to make ends meet, I think it’s important as leaders that we forego these raises. I respect my colleagues who chose not to. But personally, I think it’s an important statement to make,” he said.




Reilly further noted that although Lightfoot proposed raises for the clerk and treasurer, she froze her own salary at $216,210, where it has remained since 2005.

After declining a raise, Ald. Marty Quinn (13th) said he was having trouble understanding the rationale for accepting more than twice that much.

“I’m just obviously concerned about optics and 20%. … Today [with] inflation being what it is just raises that question,” he said.



South Side Ald. David Moore (17th) said he appreciated the treasurer’s candor.



“The city clerk did her best in trying to explain to us, but you broke it down like a 2-year-old to us,” Moore told Conyears-Ervin.

“It makes even more sense now. I was saying something in my head prior. But the way you just broke it down, it clearly makes sense. … I can go to my residents, and I can defend that.”



Also during the budget hearing, several alderpersons vowed to reverse a 20% reduction in funding for a CityKey ID program that is more important than ever with the influx of immigrants arriving from Texas, Florida and other states.

The $227,188 reduction leaves the total budget for Chicago’s municipal ID program at just over $925,022.



“We’re at 2,200 arrivals so far. New York and D.C. are over 10,000 each. I don’t think this is gonna stop anytime soon. I could see an escalation potentially from the Texas governor and maybe copycat governors after that. I’m really worried that you don’t have the necessary resources in this proposed budget to be able to handle that,” said Ald. Mike Rodriguez (22nd).



The clerk also announced guest parking passes in scores of Chicago neighborhoods with residential permit parking will be available for purchase on a mobile app during the second quarter of 2023.

$$$$ for votes!

Guaranteed income pilot program will use lottery to pick 5,000 recipients of $500 monthly checks

Lightfoot announced Thursday that the program will launch in April. Applicants must live in Chicago, be at least 18 years old, have experienced economic hardship related to COVID-19 and meet income guidelines.
By Fran Spielman Feb 24, 2022, 4:59pm CST


Chicago residents who quality for the city’s new guaranteed income pilot program can submit applications, and a lottery will be used to pick the 5,000 recipients of the no-strings-attached $500 monthly checks. Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times file


With demand for the $500 monthly payments expected to outstrip the $31.5 million in available cash, Chicago will hold a lottery to pick 5,000 participants in what Mayor Lori Lightfoot has touted as the nation’s largest universal basic income program.

Four months after the City Council agreed to use a chunk of federal pandemic relief money to provide the no-strings-attached cash assistance, the year-long test period finally may be getting off the ground.

On Thursday, Lightfoot marked the two-year anniversary of her war on poverty by announcing the city will launch the lottery for the program in April.

Chicago Spends $3.3 Million a Year to Protect Mayor Beetlejuice at Home

Buying Votes Instead of Repairing City Finances

CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago Mayor Lori Beetlejuice pitched a pilot program Monday giving $500 monthly payments to 5,000 low-income households, part of the city’s proposed $16.7 billion spending plan that relies on an infusion of federal relief funds to close budget gaps for several years.
 

Beetlejuice, a first-term Democrat, characterized the proposed $31.5 million cash assistance program as a way to help “hard-hit, low income households in need of additional economic stability.” The payments would last a year.

Some architect is dumping the Victorian look for something that looks like Millenium Park or the Red Line...UGLY

This is what the State/Lake CTA station could look like under planned $180 million remodel

The city hopes one of the busiest and oldest downtown L stations will get a mega facelift in the next few years.

By Madeline Kenney Jun 9, 2021, 7:14pm CDT


 

A rendering shows the preliminary design concepts for a rebuilt State/Lake ‘L’ station. Provided


The city is hoping the State/Lake CTA station, one of the city’s original L stops and now one of its busiest, will soon be getting a mega facelift.

The century-old platform downtown is slated to undergo a $180 million makeover in the coming years