Buried in an April 9 Chicago Sun-Times editorial was this line: “[Mayor Lori] Lightfoot is free to move large sums between departments, without City Council approval, under executive powers granted to her last month.”
“During these unprecedented times we cannot proceed with business as usual when the health and welfare of our residents and communities are at risk,” the mayor was quoted as saying.
But in the most potent move, the order gave the mayor’s budget director the power to revamp the city’s budget “as needed to maximize effectiveness of the City response” to the pandemic.
That is, the budget director must report budget changes to the council’s Committee on Budget and Government Operations “as soon as feasible” after the fact.
Why, then, did the mayor take such a bold step?
But the need for a nimble pandemic response doesn’t justify freezing out the City Council, says Ralph Martire, who heads the Chicago-based Center for Tax and Budget Accountability.
