From Fox News:
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is considering tax hikes to help plug the city’s $1.2 billion budget deficit, according to a report.
The city is weighing a $94 million property tax hike, raising the gas tax and laying off more than 300 workers to help fill the gap, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Other potential cost-saving measures include a five-day furlough for all nonunion city employees, shifting some costs onto the books of the Chicago Public Schools and raising the cloud-computing tax.
Lightfoot is set to unveil her plan at a press conference on Wednesday.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused Chicago’s gross domestic product to decline by 10% from a year ago, leading to a $799 million mid-year 2020 budget shortfall.
The economic damage caused by the pandemic was a sharp blow to Chicago’s most recent attempt to get its fiscal house in order. Lightfoot last year identified more than $500 million in structural solutions, the most since 2012, to fill the city’s record $838 million gap.
Chicago has a long way to go even if the budget gap is filled. The city is burdened with $46.5 billion of unpaid bills and has just $10 billion cash, according to a July 2020 report released by Truth in Accounting.
Read the full report at Fox News.
CHICAGO SPIRALS: 100 People Arrested, 13 Police Injured as Looters Target Windy City’s Tourism District
More than 100 people were arrested overnight Monday and at least 13 officers were injured as hundreds of looters targeted shops in Chicago’s downtown tourism district.
“This was straight up, felony criminal conduct,” said Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. “This was an assault on our city.”
“Those arrested were expected to face charges including looting, disorderly conduct, battery against police. Lightfoot said that the city has activated a neighborhood protection program,” reports the Associated Press. “The unrest began shortly after midnight and anti-police graffiti was seen in the area of the Magnificent Mile, which is one of Chicago’s most-visited tourist attractions. Hours earlier, dozens of people had faced off with police after officers shot and wounded a person Sunday in the Englewood neighborhood, located about 10 miles (16 kilometers) away.”
Bridges raised in Chicago to prevent downtown access after widespread looting breaks out https://t.co/g8x1YPpW4G pic.twitter.com/lLeVPubknE
— The Hill (@thehill) August 10, 2020
🚨 “LOOTING AND CHAOS” 🚨
Do you feel safer with radical Democrats are in charge? https://t.co/W7XcGw3dRM— Marc Lotter – Text TRUMP to 88022 (@marc_lotter) August 10, 2020
Read the full report here.
CHICAGO SPIRALS: 13 People Shot, 3 Murdered Within 24 Hours in the Windy City
The plague of gun violence sweeping Chicago sadly continued this week when 13 people were shot and three murdered within a 24 hour period in the nation’s third largest city.
“Thirteen people were shot, three of them fatally, Wednesday in Chicago. One woman was killed and another was wounded in South Shore in the day’s latest fatal attack. About 8:50 p.m., they were in the 7800 block of South Cornell Avenue when they heard shots and felt pain, Chicago police said,” reports the Chicago Sun Times.
A day earlier, 15 people were shot and 2 killed.
“A 28-year-old was struck in the head and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where she died, police said. The other woman, 35, was shot in the foot and refused medical treatment, police said,” adds the newspaper. “Wednesday afternoon, a man was killed in Lawndale on the West Side.”
Mayor Lori Lightfoot routinely blames her city’s gun violence on neighboring states and the Trump administration; claiming the President has “no interest” in protecting Chicago residents.
Read the full report here.
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