Chicago budget: $480M proposed for police misconduct settlements as hearings begin

The biggest settlement that we have had in history for just one detective and all of the small detectives and only 18 cases right now. Right now we are in court fighting 60 cases due to John Foster, Brian P. Forbert and Kevin Eberle. So just imagine how many more settlements is going to be coming down the pipeline. Mayor Johnson's latest budget proposal includes $480 million for police misconduct settlements. Police abuse survivors and activists say it's a small price to pay for the injustice. Yeah, a budget hearing started today. Political reporter Brandon Pope is here. What do we need to know? Yeah, I mean, look, these budget hearings are going to be going on pretty much every day. So get used to them. They are long. And this mayor's $17.6 billion budget, it seeks to close an $882 million budget gap without raising taxes or cutting city services. And a lot of today's hearing was exploring the question of whether that is even possible with the city's finance team in the hot seat for two rounds of questions by 19 elders, each one getting 10 minutes apiece. Now, one of the big points of contention is the mayor's plan to borrow $481 million to cover police misconduct settlements. But of course, that number on the city's credit card is even larger with interest. I just got these numbers in from the city. The rate is nearly 7% interest they're gonna have. So you add at least another $139 million to the taxpayer on top of that 481. There was also lots of probing around the corporate head tax with many alders digging in their cleats and resisting it. I spoke with University of Chicago political professor Justin Marlow, who says he's keeping a keen eye on whether city council once again takes the step they did last year in coming up with their own budget. Was the city council's involvement a one-time thing last year, or is the council willing to this year, in an election year, get as heavily involved in the writing of the budget and take ownership for a lot of these potentially controversial moves in the budget? That's the thing I think we're all watching really closely. If they do, I think it does set the stage for a very different debate for Chicago budgets going forward and potentially with more council ownership, maybe some steps taken so that we don't see these large structural deficits year over year. And yet the politics of it all are going to be the big question, very different scenario this time. Admin officials stand by their budget and say it's a balanced one to protect city services. Now, how long is all this going to go on? Last budget cycle, council was down to the wire with a December 30th passage. The deadline's the end of the year, December 31st. And all those I talked to say, yeah, buckle in. They think it's going to be just as long, if not right down to the final day. Just as long, and it's already setting up to be just as contentious. Yeah, I think we were asking, what's the scale of contention? Many said it's above a 10. They're saying 11, 15, maybe even stronger. So lots of emotion, lots of tension this time around. And then in other news, it's also the last day to file petitions for mayoral hopefuls. Who do we have so far? Yeah, the field is starting to kind of come together. The deadline's 5 p.m. So far, we've got Bill Quinlan, Lisa Nee, Maria Pappas, and Susana Mendoza filing today. They joined Mayor Brandon Johnson, Alexi Janoulias, Matt Brewer, John Kelly, and Willie Wilson. We're still waiting to hear some names like George Cardenas, Joe Holberg, and a few others. But so far, the field is stacking up. They have until 5, so still about 40-ish minutes to get these in. I've been texting a few of them, like, you getting them in? You getting them in? Which is the last thing they want, is some reporter texting them with the eyeball emoji, have you filed? Have you filed? We'll see. But so far, it's going to be another big field, clearly, already. And then after 5 p.m., what's next? The signature confirmation, all that? Exactly. That's when you start having that Chicago politics thing where we challenge signatures. you need 12,500 signatures to actually officially be on the ballot many candidates try to get way over that many getting 30,000 because they know there's going to be challenges alright Brandon Pope appreciate you sir thank you