Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s plan to close a projected $1.2 billion budget gap in 2021 would hike sales and property taxes by $76.4 million, eliminate 1,921 city jobs and dip into the city’s rainy-day fund.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot has repeatedly said she’s not in favor of defunding the Chicago Police Department, but with position reductions, budget cuts and investments in a new pilot program, the city may be rethinking the way policing will work.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot will face the biggest test of her time in office on Wednesday when she details her plan to fill the massive budget shortfall caused in part by the coronavirus pandemic.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and two of her closest allies on the Chicago City Council remain at odds over long-stalled efforts to put an elected board of Chicago residents in charge of the Chicago Police Department.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot warned Chicagoans that the city is experiencing another wave of the coronavirus pandemic, with confirmed cases rising sharply across the city to levels last seen in late May.

Inspector General Joe Ferguson’s report details several instances when Eddie Johnson got special treatment after being discovered unconscious behind the wheel of his vehicle near 34th Place and Aberdeen Street last year.

In a typical year, approximately 3% of property owners do not pay their taxes, according to Chicago officials. But in 2021, a projected 10% of property owners won’t pay their tax bills, which would cost the city $65.2 million.

Chicago Public Schools says it wants to triple the number of district graduates it hires annually as teachers, and through a new partnership, it’s planning to make the majority of those hires people of color.

A ban blocking elected officials from outside Chicago from lobbying city officials will remain in place after aldermen unanimously rejected a proposal from Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Tuesday to ease the ban.

“As a city, we must ensure every child, regardless of their ZIP code, receives a high-quality early education, providing them the tools and opportunities they need to thrive,” said Mayor Lightfoot in a statement.  

Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Thursday that President Donald Trump bears at least a measure of responsibility for inspiring anti-government groups to plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

The fund will be used to help Black and Latino neighborhoods, which continue to see disproportionately higher rates of infections and deaths as compared with citywide rates and those in primarily white and affluent communities.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot this week painted a grim picture ahead of her Oct. 21 budget address as the city tries to close a massive budget gap. Our politics team tackles those stories and more in this week’s roundtable.

City officials are working to craft a plan to fill a projected $1.2 billion budget shortfall in the 2021 fiscal year — without the hope of more aid from the federal government.

The funds will allow “tens of thousands more patients served, better access to care for the underserved and integrated care for the whole person,” officials said.

Matthew Beaudet would become the first Native American commissioner in the city’s history. “I’m humbled by it,” Beaudet told WTTW News before his confirmation hearing.