The Southside Community beats the heat for a discussion on a fair budget
The Tuesday, September 1st South Side Chicago Budget Town Hall opened with a 5:30 social hour of tasty refreshments and stirring conversation about housing affordability, taxes, and community budgetary needs. The crowd of over 70 Chicago denizens packed into the Chatham Shine Bright Community Center to receive budgetary information and probe the alderman about the budget and neighborhood needs. The crowd moderator, Erica, set the ground rules of decorum and respect. However, it was the motivating moderator, Ishan Daya, who encouraged the crowd to fight for a fair budget that would address their community needs. Several aldermen and the Mayor were scheduled to take questions from the crowd. There were heated moments and a few silences, but the takeaways were clear. The agenda, organized by the People’s Unity Platform, has several agenda items that they want the upcoming Chicago budget to deliver. This organization mapped out a clear plan for Chicago and Illinois to tax billionaires and rich corporations and to invest those dollars in critical community needs. This organization is fighting for the following: 1. Childcare for all, 2. Fully funded libraries and schools, 3. Domestic violence and gender-based violence prevention and support, 4. Healthcare for all, 5. Youth jobs, 6. Affordable Housing, and 7. An expansion of Public Mental Health Centers. While Chicago has a $16.6 billion budget, the People’s Unity Platform believes that more money is needed and can be acquired by taking three key steps: having a $21 per person per month tax on corporations with 500+ employees, declaring a surplus on all unclaimed TIF money, and relocating $100 from other agencies.
The politicians who showed up, including Alderman Moore and Alderman Yancy, took questions from the crowd. I asked Olive-Harvey College retiree and United Working Families volunteer Rosie Inwang why there were so few aldermen. She stated, “I called many aldermen for the event. Then, the day before the event, a few called me and cancelled.”
The Mayor introduces the budget on October 14th. Budget hearings will span from October through November. The aldermen vote on the budget from November through December. Citizens should plan to contact their alderman to influence the budget vote. A door-knocking and phone-calling campaign is necessary to spread the message of our collective needs to our community and politicians. Twenty-six of the 50 aldermen are needed to pass a budget. However, a budget needs to be passed that addresses more community needs.
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