RELIEF BILL TO DELIVER $1.8 BIL. TO BOTH CITY, CPS

Mayor: Federal package not a ‘slush fund’

Fresh from a City Council rebellion over her decision to spend $281 million of Round One coronavirus relief on police payroll, Mayor Lori Lightfoot tried Wednesday to head off a repeat performance.

Hours after the U.S. House approved an even bigger package that will send $1.8 billion to Chicago, Lightfoot warned aldermen to keep their wish lists in their pockets.

“My expectation is that the money is gonna come ... through specific grants that have specific requirements on how the money can be spent,” she said.

“So I want to disabuse people out there and my colleagues in the City Council. This is not $1.9 trillion of a slush fund that we can use every way that we can.”

Lightfoot had signed off on $500 million in short-term borrowing — for less than a year, at 1.95% interest — to buy time for Congress to ride to the rescue of pandemicravaged cities.

Now, that gamble has paid off. The $1.8 billion federal infusion includes money to replace revenues lost to the coronavirus. It allows the mayor to cancel, or at least minimize, the scoop-andtoss borrowing that was one of the most controversial elements of her 2021 budget.

She can scale down plans to refinance $1.7 billion in general obligation and sales tax securitization bonds; that approach would have extended the debt for eight years.

“Obviously, some of the money will come to help us address our revenue loss as a result of COVID-19. But based upon what I know at this point, a lot of that money is coming through specific grant streams that are going to be restricted,” she said.

Lightfoot also noted the money cannot be used to reduce taxes or bankroll city employee pensions.

“If we don’t follow those rules, we put ourselves in a world of hurt,” Lightfoot said.