By a 17-10 vote, the Chicago City Council's Finance Committee advanced Mayor Rahm Emanuel's proposed $543 million property tax increase to cover police and fire pensions on Tuesday.
The Chicago City Council's Progressive Reform Caucus released a list of fiscal reforms the group would like to see implemented as a means to achieve "fairness for working families in the 2016 budget process."
Chicagoans protested at Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office Thursday morning for corporate tax transparency.
At City Hall, activists with the regional community advocacy group IIRON urged Emanuel to support a long-pending ordinance that would require all publicly-traded corporations seeking subsidies or contracts from the city to publicly disclose the amount they pay in Illinois income taxes and any tax breaks they receive.
"Resources have been cut, and cut again, as we are told that we are in a 'budget crisis,'" said IIRON member Maria Alicia Ibarra of Bridgeport's First Lutheran Church of the Trinity. "At the same time, it is not clear (whether) corporations making record profits are paying their fair share to the common good ... Show us the money. Give us transparency."
The Chicago City Council's Progressive Reform Caucus has joined the call for an end to the interest-rate swap agreements the city and Chicago Public Schools have with banks and private investment firms, including Bank of America and Loop Capital.
Chicago Ald. Bob Fioretti (2nd) says a property tax hike appears to be on the horizon by the looks of a survey sent to aldermanic candidates by a new super PAC formed to support Mayor Rahm Emanuel's re-election.
Chicagoans protested at Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office Thursday morning for corporate tax transparency.