But their promises ignored a key reality:
But their promises ignored a key reality:
While the city has made some strides in recent years, its finances remain precarious, and it’s unlikely that the next mayor can govern without raising a single tax or fee.
“We always like to hear people say that we don’t want any taxes,” Ald. Roderick Sawyer, 6th, told voters at a candidates forum last month, noting the city had to meet its obligations and maintain solid ratings to keep its borrowing costs low. “What we want are responsible and predictable taxes.”
Sawyer and the other City Council member running for mayor, Sophia King, 4th, voted yes on Lightfoot’s first three budgets; King voted no on the mayor’s 2023 spending plan.
Few campaigns have released formal financial plans. García, who ran for mayor against Emanuel in 2015, has said he would “exercise leadership” to get the city’s economy “firing on all cylinders again,” noting he had helped secure federal COVID-19 relief funding in Congress.
For García, city finances are a potential weak point. One of Emanuel’s most effective attacks in the 2015 race was to question García’s ability to solve the city’s massive budget deficit and looming pension shortfall. In the weeks before the election, Emanuel allies rolled out budget books on wheels and suggested García use them to craft his plans, saying his proposal to launch a blue ribbon committee to study budget performance before identifying specific taxes or cuts was as realistic as “leprechauns and unicorns.”
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