CHICAGO (WLS) — The saga of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s involvement in the uncertain future of Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez comes on the heels of a nearly seven week budget battle that has been described as chaotic and dysfunctional.
It’s a battle that some observers believe has left Mayor Johnson politically weakened.
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Johnson congratulated himself on Monday after his budget narrowly passed.
“My administration is proud to have created one of the most transparent and expansive budget engagement processes in the history of the city,” Johnson said.
However, the self-titled “Collaborator-in-Chief” may be seeing things through rose colored glasses.
“Dysfunctional, I think that would be the clearest way I could describe it,” 40th Ward Ald. Andre Vasquez said.
Other council members were equally blunt on Monday.
“The way you’ve led this process has left the City Council fractured,” 49th Ward Ald. Maria Hadden said.
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“Our shared constituents can’t afford this level of chaos again,” 11th Ward Ald. Nicole Lee said.
Former mayoral candidate Paul Vallas believes the budget process left Mayor Johnson weakened, and the council needing to demand a better budget process.
“They have to demand complete access to information, transparency, number one,” Vallas said. “Number two, they’ve got to begin looking at these programs now, looking at the expenditures now.”
Vallas sees the Martinez saga as another mess for the mayor.
“He’s clearly advancing the Chicago Teachers Union agenda,” Vallas said. “And Pedro Martinez, you have to understand, is the scapegoat.”
But the budget battle, particularly over property tax hike that went from $300 million to nothing, cost the mayor a lot of political capital.
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Northwestern University Professor of Law John McGinnis frequently writes for the Manhattan Institute, a public policy think tank.
“The mayor came in with a budget that obviously didn’t meet the interests of almost anyone in the city council, and that made him look very weak,” McGinnis said.
McGinnis and others also note that the Mayor did nothing to address the city’s structural deficit, meaning taxes will very likely have to be raised significantly next year. And there’s no guarantee of any help from the state which is facing its own big budget shortfall.
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