The Spin: Pritzker coy on his Thanksgiving plans | U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos tests positive for COVID-19 | City’s public health doc says initially there won’t be enough vaccines to around

Legal weed smokers, pat yourselves on the back: Your efforts may have helped save 350 city of Chicago jobs. Over the weekend, Mayor Lori Lightfoot took the layoffs off the table, with her budget team citing higher-than-expected sales tax revenues on cannabis. It probably, helped, too, that aldermen and public employee unions were pushing back on the job cuts.

The mayor’s working to close a staggering $1.2 billion budget hole in next year’s city government budget — the most controversial proposals had been the layoffs and a property tax hike. The latter is still in play. Lightfoot has had some testy exchanges with aldermen — 26 of whom she needs to approve her 2021 spending plan — that have spilled into the public view and show a seeming lack of trust between the legislative and executive branches.

Fresh off a reelection victory, U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, of Moline and representing the state’s 17th Congressional District, is the latest elected leader to test positive for COVID-19. She announced today on Twitter that she was experiencing mild symptoms and was quarantining at home here in Illinois while continuing to work remotely.

And Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the state’s top public health officer, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, have encouraged people to rethink traditional holiday plans that involve large gatherings of people from different households and to stay home and celebrate with those who live under the same roof. But the governor, after saying he was downsizing his own tradition, seemed to get coy about where he is planning to spend the holiday.

A Chicago resident, he was asked whether he would abide by Mayor Lightfoot’s travel advisory. He initially said he didn’t know the details of the advisory, which asks but does not mandate Chicagoans to forgo nonessential travel.

After some back-and-forth, NBC 5 1/4 u2032s Mary Ann Ahern asked whether he’d stay in Chicago. “That is my hope, but I will let you know.”

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Chicago’s health commissioner on CNN: There likely won’t be enough COVID-19 vaccine initially

From the Tribune’s Gregory Pratt: Chicago’s health care workers will be first in line to receive coronavirus vaccines but there likely won’t be enough initial doses to go around, the city’s public health commissioner, Dr. Allison Arwady, said in an interview with CNN this morning.

She expects Chicago at first would probably get about 150,000 doses, a figure that would not cover all health care workers in the city. Read the full story here.

Her comments come as Moderna announced today its COVID-19 vaccine is proving highly effective in a major trial, a second ray of hope in the global race for a shot to tame the resurgent virus that is now killing more than 8,000 people a day worldwide, The Associated Press reports. A week ago, competitor Pfizer Inc. announced its own vaccine appeared similarly effective — news that puts both companies on track to seek permission within weeks for emergency use in the U.S. Bloomberg takes a look at how each of the vaccines stack up.

Last month, Pritzker said the first doses of the vaccine would be given to front-line health care workers, first responders who treat COVID-19 patients, as well as the staff and residents in long-term care facilities. Read the NBC 5 story here.

Timing: Today, Mayor Lightfoot said at an unrelated news conference that the public shouldn’t expect to see a vaccine until mid-2021.

No one fined for violating Chicago’s travel order so far: The Tribune’s Alice Yin has the details here.

Chicago and Cook County’s stay-home advisories kicked in today. They’re not mandatory but as cases rise, officials are pleading with residents to stay home as much as they possibly can. Details here.

Data points: The state announced 11,632 newly confirmed and probable cases today along with an additional 37 deaths.

Congresswoman Bustos, after announcing on social media that she’d tested positive for the virus, also tweeted: “I will be working remotely from my home in Illinois until cleared by my physician. All individuals that I had been in contact with have been notified. Across the country and the Congressional District I serve, COVID case numbers are skyrocketing.”

She advised her constituents in Northwestern Illinois and elsewhere to “wear a mask, practice social distancing, get your flu shot and wash your hands.”

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Layoffs off the table, but Lightfoot, City Council continue tense negotiations over 2021 budget plan

Over the weekend, City Hall announced that hundreds of proposed layoffs had been pulled off the table as the mayor tries to close a gaping $1.2 billion budget hole, the Tribune’s Gregory Pratt reports. The mayor’s budget team said cannabis sales tax revenue would cover the $13 million in savings that would have resulted from layoffs — a drop in the bucket when you think about a $1.2 billion-plus budget hole.

But she’s doubling down on an unpopular proposal to hike property taxes, Gregory Pratt writes. During a private meeting with the City Council Latino Caucus on Sunday, the mayor told members they’ll have to pass a hike either this year or closer to the 2023 election, aldermen said.

Lightfoot also reiterated that she plans to link her budget with changes to the city’s sanctuary city ordinance even though the Latino Caucus opposes tying them together.

Reminder: The mayor is counting on the $94 million property tax increase, a 3-cent gas tax hike and lots of borrowing, among other things, to help close a $1.2 billion deficit next year, so finding areas of compromise will be key to closing the deal.

Last week, the mayor had an at-times contentious call with the City Council Black Caucus. Lightfoot told the group “don’t come to me for s--- for the next three years” if they don’t support the budget, two aldermen recalled. Read Pratt’s full story here.

An employee tax aimed at online giant Amazon and other big retailers is among the proposals progressive aldermen introduced to balance next year’s budget, the Tribune’s John Byrne writes. The proposed $16-per-employee-per-month tax would apply only to logistics operations with more than 50 employees such as Target, Walmart and the recently opened Amazon delivery warehouse in the Far South Side’s Pullman neighborhood. Read the full story here.

City Council to consider capping delivery app fees charged to Chicago restaurants by third-party delivery companies such as Grubhub and Uber Eats during the coronavirus pandemic, the Tribune’s John Byrne, Phil Vettel and Gregory Pratt write.

Under Cook County budget proposal, sheriff’s office faces 4% budget cut, but activists who support less funding for law enforcement say that’s “not enough,” the Tribune’s Alice Yin writes.

State budget forecast: It’s raining red ink

Still smarting from voters sinking his graduated income tax proposal on the Nov. 3 ballot, Gov. Pritzker’s budget office forecasts through 2026 show deficits soaring to $4.8 million next year and continuing in that $4 billion range through the 2026 budget year, the Tribune’s Rick Pearson reports.

That’s on top of the projected backlog of bills for payments owed to state vendors, expected to triple to $33.16 billion in the 2026 budget year, plus pension obligations owed by the state to public employees that will jump from $8.624 billion this budget year to $10.59 billion in 2026, according to the most recent five-year forecast from the governor’s budget office.

Across-the-board spending cuts are expected, the budget forecast notes. Pritzker also believes “revenue adjustments need to be considered as well,” the forecast notes, and will work with lawmakers to “identify corporate and business tax loopholes that can be closed and tax adjustments that can be made that will minimize the impact to lower- and middle-class families while ensuring that Illinois can meet its financial responsibilities.”

Hanging in the balance is whether the federal government can cobble together a relief bill that sends aid to state and local governments who’ve seen sales tax and other revenues dry up amid COVID-19 shutdown orders. Read the full story here.

Chicago’s largest police union makes big plans for governor’s and mayor’s races

The conservative-leaning Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 may have backed the losing candidate in the Cook County state’s attorney’s race, but its outspoken president, John Catanzara, said the organization representing rank-and-file officers is gearing up for the 2022 governor and 2023 mayoral races, the Tribune’s Alice Yin writes.

The union will try to recruit candidates from police, firefighter, Streets and Sanitation and other city worker backgrounds to take out aldermen it feels aren’t supportive of law enforcement causes, Catanzara said. And the FOP’s board voted to siphon part of the dues from its 12,000 or so members for its political action committee. Read the full story here.

Could Rahm Emanuel land a spot in Biden’s Cabinet? Progressives are arguing against it

From the Tribune’s John Byrne: “When former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s name quickly surfaced as a possible transportation secretary in a Joe Biden administration, it came as little surprise to those in the political-media ecosystem. If the longtime Beltway insider didn’t float his own name for a Cabinet spot, he has plenty of friends up to the task.”

Former Peoria congressman Ray LaHood, a Republican and onetime Transportation Secretary who like Emanuel served in the Obama-Biden administration, points to the former mayor’s accomplishments in the transportation arena during his time at City Hall.

Nationally and here at home, the centrist has been bumping up against the more progressive wing of the Democratic Party. New York U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told The New York Times he would be a “divisive” pick; in response to WTTW’s Heather Cherone’s tweet on the matter, Ocasio-Cortez threw his dirty laundry out there all at once: “We must govern with integrity and accountability. Laquan McDonald’s life mattered.”

Emanuel’s second term as mayor was dogged by allegations he sought to keep the now-infamous police dashcam video of the police killing of McDonald, shot 16 times by a police officer sent to prison over it, under wraps until after he won reelection in 2015. Read the full story here.

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