Looking at the upcoming FY2022 City of Chicago budget, both Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the Right to Recovery coalition see the $1.9 billion dollars in federal COVID relief as a once-in-a-generation amount of money for a once-in-a-generation crisis. Lightfoot wants to use half the federal money to pay down city debt, to steward the money in case Chicago faces another crisis and to use it only for "catalytic" community expenditures. The Right to Recovery coalition says that using all the money against poverty in Chicago is itself an investment. We give equal space to both budget views.
