CHICAGO – Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot's staff has been digging through the financial mess left behind by Democrat former Mayor Rahm Emanuel – and it's becoming more and more evident why he didn't seek re-election in 2019. The city's finances are a mess – despite the help state lawmakers gave the Chicago Public School system this past spring.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Thursday she needs help from Springfield to erase a $1 billion-plus shortfall, but she shed no new light on the kind of help she’ll seek, except to promise a heavy dose of budget cuts to make the tax increases go down easier, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Friday.
Last month, Lightfoot asked the state to take over the city's $28B debt and Governor Pritzker said it wouldn't happen.
However, all this demand for the whole state to bail the city of Chicago out of its financial pit is fueling calls from those downstate that have worked hard to pay taxes as required, while Chicagoans overspent for decades with the expectation that someday they would be relieved.
Such plans are aggravating to the growing numbers that are calling for a "New Illinois" – separated from Chicago and Cook County.
"Downstaters are tapped out, the most recent school funding reform was to solve this issue," State Rep. Brad Halbrook told Illinois Review Friday. "But once again Chicago is headed back to Springfield asking for more.
"Enough is enough, residents are leaving the state in droves. The only answer is a complete restructure of CPS [Chicago Public Schools]," Halbrook said.
Halbrook was featured on Fox News' Fox & Friends in May …
