Mayor Lori Lightfoot wants to spend over half of $1.8 billion in federal relief on debt. A a group of alderman want the money spent on things like rent relief, child care and mental health treatment.
A group of Chicago aldermen plan to introduce an emergency ordinance this week that seeks to ensure the city will quickly spend $1.8 billion in federal money on social services and not to use any of it — as Mayor Lori Lightfoot wishes — to repay creditors.
“We are sitting on at least half of that money, and the federal government did not give it to us to sit on,” Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st), one of 12 co-sponsors of the Chicago Rescue Plan, said Tuesday at a news conference held in Daley Plaza. “They sent these dollars to us so we could put them out as expeditiously as possible.”
The ordinance calls for the money to be earmarked and quickly spent on a range of immediate needs including helping people behind on water bills and rent and expanding access to child care and mental health facilities.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot had planned to use more than half the money to pay down borrowing that followed pandemic-induced shortfalls. But her plan was put in jeopardy after the Treasury Department issued guidelines last month stating the money couldn’t be spent on tax cuts, pension funds, debt services, legal settlements or judgments or be deposited in rainy day funds.
“While the (federal relief) program offers broad flexibility to recipients to address local conditions, these restrictions will help ensure that funds are used to augment existing activities and pressing needs,” the guidelines state.
A spokesman for the city’s budget department said in May that the city was seeking clarification on the guidance. A 60-day window for the city to submit its stance on the matter to the Treasury Department ends July 16.
A spokesman for the city’s budget department wasn’t immediately available Tuesday afternoon to provide an update.
Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th), a sponsor of the ordinance that will be introduced Wednesday, said the money was needed in hard-hit communities as soon as possible.
“We can’t wait anymore. This is the time to act now,” he said.
Lightfoot balanced her 2021 budget by refinancing $1.7 billion in general obligation and sales tax securitization bonds and claiming $949 million in savings in the first two years. That approach extended the debt for eight years.
The mayor’s financial team had told aldermen that federal relief money would be used to repay $965 million in scoop-and-toss borrowing.
Lightfoot reiterated that promise to investors last month amid heavy resistance from a City Council hellbent on using that money to address poverty, homelessness, mental health and economic disinvestment.
La Spata said Tuesday he was optimistic the ordinance would get enough votes.
“We believe there’s going to be a broad appetite for supporting our communities, for keeping their lives stable right now,” he said.
Contributing: Fran Spielman
from Chicago Sun-Times - All https://ift.tt/3vJoRuJ
No comments:
Post a Comment