CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Mayor Lightfoot is not happy with a couple downtown aldermen and their colleagues who blocked a special tax district for North Michigan Avenue.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said it was a mistake that Aldermen Brendan Reilly and Brian Hopkins opposed the plan by members of the Magnificent Mile Association to raise about $750,000 by taxing themselves to pay for increased security, marketing, and street improvements to lure shoppers back following incidents of looting.
"The businesses in the downtown area came to us in light of the challenges that they have experienced and were facing over the course of the summer and fall, asked for help, and were willing to be taxed and what you saw is a manifestation of Aldermanic Prerogative at its worse," she said.
Aldermanic Prerogative is the tradition of city council members not standing in the way of an alderman's plans for their own ward.
"And so the question isn't to me, the question is to those aldermen who blocked the will of the business community in their wards who are suffering and hurting and wanted some kind of relief and were willing to tax themselves to do so: What possible legitimate reason could there be?" Lightfoot said.
One reason is not all businesses in the area are on board with the plan, Reilly said.
