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Dear Neighbors,Â
Today I voted NO on the proposed City Budget. Below are my prepared remarks from the City Council meeting:
âThank you, Mr. President.
Good morning to my colleagues on the City Council and to the members of the public with us today.
Having now voted on six budgets prior to this one, I have a deeper appreciation for the challenges we have faced as a Council and as a city. We have governed through a global pandemic, humanitarian crises, a hostile and authoritarian federal administration, and a series of inherited fiscal challenges as well as those created by the Johnson Administration itself, that have culminated in the billion-dollar deficits we confront today.
And yet, despite unprecedented circumstances, the assignment remains the same.
Chicagoans across our city are grappling with a life that has become increasingly unaffordable. While the cost of living continues to rise, wages for most people have not kept pace. Housing is more expensive. Property taxes have risen sharplyâdriven in part by a Cook County Board of Review that has too often favored commercial real estate interests over the struggles of working people. Healthcare and energy costs are ballooning. And inflation, fueled by reckless economic policies from the Trump administration, has made basic necessities like groceries harder to afford.
Working families donât just see these pressuresâthey feel and live them.
In moments like these, our neighbors look to their city government for leadership and confidence. While there are glimmers of hope, the outcomes presented in this budgetâand the process that produced itâmake clear how much work remains.
Last yearâs budget process was deeply dysfunctional. Necessary revenue options were left on the table. Tensions between the City Council and the Mayorâs administration were visible, tangible, and at times intractable. In response, Iâalong with a number of colleaguesânegotiated for stronger reporting requirements and a midyear budget review, which took place in the third quarter. We did so in hopes of improving what had become bad practice in negotiating a multibillion-dollar budget.
I appreciate that this year we at least had an additional month and a half to ask questions and challenge assumptions. But we were still presented with a budget from an administration that appeared uninterested in negotiation and more focused on galvanizing people to âchoose a sideââeither you support their proposal, or you are somehow standing with billionaires.
That framing was more marketing than substance.
The corporate head tax is not the only way to tax the wealthyâand we should be taxing those who have benefited the most, especially during times when working families have struggled. But the head tax, as proposed, only raised $83 million against a $6 billion corporate fund, while this administration simultaneously borrowed hundreds of millions of dollarsâboth for CFD back pay they said had been set aside, but wasnât, and for misconduct settlements that many members of this Council only learned about during hearings.
That debt will cost tens of millions more in interest. And who receives those payments? Big banks. Billionaires. So if youâre taxing the wealthy to raise $83 million while paying hundreds of millions to the very same interests, the math simply does not add up. To then have mayoral allies charge others who disagree with the Mayorâs proposal, even those who had not even voted on anything yet, like our colleague Desmon Yancy, as being billionaire puppets or not representing their people is hypocrisy that should be pointed out.
Many of us called for efficiencies. Those concerns were dismissed as calls to cut headcount, rather than engaging in a serious, detailed discussion about where savings could be foundâwhile one department has grown so large that it now consumes more than half of the Cityâs operating budget.
The Mayorâs proposal also failed to make the full advance pension payment, despite the opportunity to do soâpushing yet another burden onto future generations.
The challenges in this budget did not arise in a vacuum. They are the result of decisions made by this administration: eliminating the CPI tax, failing to add structural revenue last year, and signing contracts with raises we knew would be difficult to fund.
So when an administration creates its own fiscal problems, refuses to heed warnings about the consequences of decision-making made by members of this council, refuses to engage in good-faith negotiations, and erodes relationships to the point where collaboration becomes impossible, the burden shifts to the City Council to figure out how to resolve the budget.
That incompetence and dismissiveness is precisely what led to the formation of a coalition of Alders.
Iâd like to commend our colleagues who organized to create a revenue ordinance, even though there are substantial decisions in it that I disagree with. You all exhibited what this administration could not - the ability to collaborate, to engage, and negotiate with each other to the point where you grew to a majority in this moment. We all know how challenging that is with leaders who have different views, life experiences, priorities, and motivations. Your shared frustration with the Mayor and his team motivated each of you to find agreement. Whereas some of the members of this council spent more time aligning and defending the administration in spite of its faults, you all took action and in the interest of a council acting as an independent and co-equal branch, I do believe this is an evolution of the council. Some may try to inaccurately characterize this coalition as being similar to the Vrdolyak crew during the council wars, but that would be inaccurate. There are plenty of people from various backgrounds, identities, and ideologies that found the agreement necessary to build a coalition.Â
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And that coalition learned what I had also experienced - that the city council is not afforded the tools, resources, staff, and data to create the kind of substantial change through the budget process that would lead to better outcomes for our city. As we saw in hearings, the administration has data they refuse to share, and then gaslight our members in asking them to create budget solutions without that same data. To put it plainly, you canât ask us to cook without giving us the ingredients. In absence of that information, this coalition has made some decisions that I have very real concerns that keep me from supporting their proposal.Â
Their proposal doesnât address the borrowing, although it does make a full pension payment. It also proposes to have the city sell its debt to collectors as a way of raising revenue, which I feel leads to predatory practices towards Chicagoans in a time when so many are struggling. I do have concerns about the projections of the alders proposal as their budget experts didnât come up to a hearing to be subjected to the same level of scrutiny we give to the budget office for the city. Those reasons are in part why I can't support the proposed budget.Â
There is an opportunity, however, to partner with you all through the management ordinance. Through it, we can create an independent budget office that could run data and provide better analyses and projections. That would empower the council to create better proposals year over year, to get better reporting, and to be more independent. Similarly an independent legal counsel, as was first proposed by Alders Reilly and Beale would helpful to us as a body for a number of reasons.
There is also an opportunity for those of us who are serious about finding efficiencies and being fiscally responsible - we have one department out of over 30 of them that is the ONLY department with a multi BILLION dollar budget. We have just one department out of all of them that takes up over HALF of our operating expenses. If any department takes up that much of our budget, we need to admit that there is some level of bloat there. Of course, I am referring to the Chicago Police Department. I am not talking headcount, but I do believe we a true and independent forensic audit of that department and others. In good faith and spirit I ask all of our colleagues across ideologies to partner with us to move a forensic audit forward with the same diligence and responsibility we feel toward our other fiduciary duties to the residents of Chicago.
With the proper resources tha can empower the council to be a balance negotiator I believe we can get better outcomes, and we can do it together.
To all residents of our great city, please always remember that this city government is yours - you are an investor through the taxes you pay, you are our true bosses. We are your employees - hold us accountable every day as we work through our current and future challenges so that we serve to the best of our abilities to deliver the Chicago we all love, believe in, and deserve.â
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2025 Team Accomplishments!Â
As we wind down for the year, I want to take a moment and thank our incredible staff for their work over the past year. It's been a challenging year for Chicago, but I'm so proud of the way our team has stepped up. Here are just some of the things we've gotten done this year:
- Completed 5,872 service requests from neighbors!
- Made sure 1,864 trees got trimmed through our new and improved tree grid system!
- Surveyed every street in the ward and reported XX potholes!
- Resurfaced 8 residential streets and 5 arterial streets
- Completed the Lincoln Avenue North Streetscape, 2 protected bike lanes and 3 new neighborhood greenways and the Winnemac Park baseball diamond
- Secured funding for Mather Park Improvements
- Held a Community Defense Workshop to train 700+ people in supporting immigrants in the Ward, along with Know Your Rights canvasses
- Shoveled sidewalks for 40+ neighbors
- Along with our incredible volunteers, hosted 5 accessibility and safety surveys and 2 community clean-ups
- Passed Disabled Parking Permit reform to make parking more accessible for disabled neighbors
- Helped passed legislation to expand ADUs and eliminated Parking Minimums to allow for more affordable housing
- Introduced legislation to address police misconduct settlement spending and perform a comprehensive audit of CPD, along with a host of other budget reforms
I also want to shout out the team from the Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights. This was an incredibly difficult year to work in immigration, and they stepped up in so many ways to support our neighbors who have been targeted by the Trump administration's campaign of terror on our city. To see more of what the Committee accomplished this year, check out our annual report.
From December 22nd-January 2nd, the 40th Ward Office will be closed for the holidays, so we won't be sending out newsletters for the next two weeks! We will still be monitoring our inbox and voicemail for any urgent issues, so if something comes up, please call us at 773-654-1867 or submit a request at 40thward.org/contact and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.
I hope you and your loved ones have a restful holiday season and a Happy New Year!
In Solidarity and community,
Andre Vasquez
Alderperson, 40th Ward
40th Ward Office Hours:
Monday: 10am-5pm
Tuesday: 10am-5pm
Wednesday: 10am-5pm
Thursday: 10am-5pm
Friday: phones and appointments only!
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