A coalition of progressive activists and aldermen Tuesday released their own plan for how Chicago should spend more than $1.8 billion in federal stimulus money.
Their plan would vastly expand child care, reopen public mental health clinics, create a guaranteed basic income for the city’s poorest residents, forgive debt from unpaid water bills and provide housing assistance for the homeless.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot has not yet released a breakdown of how she wants to allocate the money from the American Rescue Plan, passed by Congress earlier this year. In a letter to aldermen Tuesday, the mayor’s budget director Susie Park said the administration plans to discuss how to spend the federal stimulus money in conjunction with the 2022 budget process.
Typically, the mayor releases a budget in October for approval in November, but Park’s letter said the mayor intends to release the 2022 budget proposal in September this year…