Spotlight Politics: Chicago Faces Major Belt-Tightening


Mayor Lori Lightfoot this week painted a grim picture ahead of her Oct. 21 budget address as the city tries to close a projected $1.2 billion budget shortfall in the 2021 fiscal year without the hope of more aid from the federal government.

“Kicking the can down the road, not who I am,” Lightfoot said Tuesday at an unrelated bews conference. “Our moment of reckoning is right now.”

Thanks to our sponsors:

View all sponsors

The city has no good solutions to close the gap, Lightfoot said, adding that she has warned aldermen that the looming vote on the budget will be the toughest they have ever faced.

“Every single meeting [on the budget] has been painful,” Lightfoot said. “We’re going to have to make some very tough decisions.”

Our Spotlight Politics team of Amanda Vinicky, Paris Schutz, Heather Cherone and Carol Marin weighs in on that story and more in this week’s roundtable.

Our politics team of Amanda Vinicky, Heather Cherone, Paris Schutz and Carol Marin discuss these stories and more in this week’s edition of “Spotlight Politics.”


Thanks to our sponsors:

View all sponsors

Thanks to our sponsors:

View all sponsors