Illinois has seen a decrease in the median household income, and Todd Maisch, the Illinois Chamber president wonders if COVID-19 relief payments are a contributing factor.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average Illinois family made about $1,100 less last year than the year before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot will ask Chicago aldermen to vote on her $16.4 billion 2023 budget Monday — her last chance to present a city spending plan before facing voters next February.

With election season ongoing, Lightfoot’s administration designed her budget to be as uncontroversial as possible, though it wouldn’t be a Lightfoot initiative without a few fights. As part of her budget, Lightfoot has faced criticism for pushing a measure giving the next mayor an automatic annual raise tied to inflation, though the mayor can opt out of the pay hike.

Every year since she’s been in office, Mayor Lori Lightfoot has shifted millions of dollars in new education-related costs to Chicago Public Schools that were long part of the city’s budget, a growing financial burden that for the first time this year will not be fully covered by other funding from the city.

Soaring food costs have hit Illinois food pantries very hard. Significantly more people are showing up for emergency food assistance. At the same time, food donations are harder to get and costs have quadrupled.

Carrie Schumacher is the director of Willow Creek Care Center in South Barrington. Food providers like Willow Care and people who need food are facing the same pressures, she said.

For months, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has pushed a plan to turn valuable public housing land over to a soccer team owned by a billionaire. But as the deal awaits approval from the federal government, Lightfoot and the Chicago Housing Authority have kept key details hidden from the public and even other government officials.

The CHA has told city aldermen that the Chicago Fire soccer team will likely pay up to $40 million to lease the 23-acre site for 40 or more years, with the proceeds used to benefit low-income families. But CHA officials have been secretive about specifics of the deal, including how they arrived at that price for prime land in a gentrifying neighborhood.

The Chicago City Council is poised to approve a plan to borrow $1.85 billion to fund the second phase of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s plan to repair Chicago’s crumbling streets, sidewalks, bridges and shoreline in 2023 and 2024, but it is unclear what the first phase of the city’s infrastructure plan has accomplished.

In November 2020, the Chicago City Council approved the first phase of what Lightfoot calls Chicago Works as part of the city’s 2021 budget and agreed to borrow $1.4 billion to fund work that was to be finished by the end of 2022. The City Council is scheduled to vote on whether to borrow $1.85 billion to fund the second phase of Chicago Works alongside Lightfoot’s $16.4 billion spending plan for 2023.