By Nick Gale, WLS-AM 890 News
(SPRINGFIELD, Ill.) — Mayor Lori Lightfoot is seeing some pushback on her plan to increase Chicago’s Real Estate Transfer Tax.
Nine state lawmakers have said that they won’t consider the measure unless it includes funds dedicated to alleviating homelessness.
In a letter to Lightfoot from mostly South Side and south suburban lawmakers, the group of nine say they will support the proposed Real Estate Transfer Tax increase but only if an amount of it is dedicated to homelessness. The fair number they say is 60-percent.
While running for mayor, Lightfoot floated the idea of using a transfer tax increase to help expand affordable housing and pay for programs to reduce homelessness, but later dropped the idea in order to use the revenue to fill the city’s $838 million budget deficit.
It’s another hurdle for the mayor who is hoping lawmakers will also take up a revised casino plan in the short fall veto session.
Copyright 2019 WLS-AM News
