Advocates propose reallocating funds from CPD vacancies to maintain youth and public health programs • TRiiBE

“This was not caused by a tax the city tried to put on them. It is caused by inflation in property sales prices, including property values ​​and taxes driven by the greed of wealthy landlords and corporate investors making big money by gentrifying our neighborhood.”

In 2022, Plzeň homeowners saw their property taxes increase by 40 percent. Morales added that inefficiencies in the city’s budget are related to the CPD because of the more than 1,000 vacant jobs. Rodriguez Sanchez echoed those sentiments.

“We have a lot of vacancies that we’re not going to fill,” Rodriguez Sanchez said, referring to CPD vacancies. “What we are seeing now is that the positions that are sitting there are not providing safety for anyone. How about we use that money, those resources, for things that are available that can provide safety to people.”

During her statements, she also showed Peacekeeping Program of GKMCwhich hired more than 100 youth last summer for its pilot program on the South Side as a program that must continue to invest. She also mentioned the city’s basic income program and programs to help survivors of domestic violence.

“We want to be progressive. We want to get the resources where they are and we want to make sure people have what they need so we can have a safe Chicago,” Rodriguez Sanchez said.

She added that cutting rather than expanding funding for welfare programs does not align with progressivism. The budget proposed by CPD for 2025 it is almost 2.1 billion dollars. It is also the city’s largest department and accounts for more than 30% of the city’s corporate fund, which funds city services and programs. To date, there are approximately 11,683 sworn officers in the CPD.

In addition to maintaining funding for programs such as GKMC peacekeeping forces, the proposal also calls for retaining civilian roles within the CPD’s Office of Constitutional Policing and increasing funding for Chicago Department of Public Health to reduce the city’s life expectancy gap.