The Chicago City Council yesterday approved a $16.7 billion budget for 2022 designed to help the city recover from losses sustained during the pandemic, through measures including one of the biggest guaranteed basic income programs in the country, Bloomberg News reported. Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s plan relies on both federal aid and higher property tax revenues, among other sources of income. That revenue is helping to cover higher pension fund and labor costs. She closed a $733 million deficit in the city’s $4.9 billion corporate fund, which pays for basic operations and services. Chicago’s budget represents a turnaround from 2020, when the city was concerned about the impact the pandemic could have on its credit rating. Now it is embarking on a plan to sell as much as $4.4 billion in debt in 2022, and this week Fitch Ratings boosted the city’s outlook to stable from negative.
