A couple weeks ago Mayor Rahm Emanuel offered his view of the state of Chicago in his budget address to the City Council. It was a mix of facts, half facts, boasts, and outright spin that’s become an annual rite.
Fortunately, not everyone buys the mayor’s take on things. That’s why I headed over to the drafty old UE Hall at 37 S. Ashland for last Wednesday’s budget hearing sponsored by the City Council’s progressive caucus.
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The progressives’ gathering was the only public budget hearing held this year. Mayor Emanuel certainly didn’t convene one—though his predecessors had done so going back to the days of Harold Washington.
So it was left to the eight members of the council’s progressive caucus to hold one. For the record, they are: Robert Fioretti (2nd Ward), Roderick Sawyer (6th), Toni Foulkes (15th), Rick Munoz (22nd), Scott Waguespack (32nd), Nicholas Sposato (36th), and John Arena (45th). (Fifth Ward alderman Leslie Hairston (5th) would have been there except she was under the weather.) Take your bows, aldermen.
Mental health patients described struggling to make do without therapy since the mayor closed six neighborhood clinics.
And several retired city workers gave compelling testimony about how mayoral budget cuts are creating whopping increases in their monthly health premiums.
I also caught up with Mary Jones, one of Harding’s colleagues, who had a similar story to tell.
