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We're told this was copied from his social media page - it seems to check out:

• MERRY CHRISTMAS CHICAGO, YOU’RE ABOUT TO GET “THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON TAKING”, AN AUTOMATIC ANNUAL PROPERTY TAX INCREASE “FOREVER”.

  So, the Finance Committee has passed the mayor’s proposed budget that includes an automatic annual property tax increase, without future City Council approval. The automatic tax increase will be five percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less. This does not prevent the mayor from going to the city council for an even greater increase. Chicago will almost certainly need that in the future, given that 80 percent of Lightfoot's budget is balanced by borrowing, unspecified “efficiencies,” and yet-to-be negotiated contract savings. And don’t forget the city’s unresolved pension funding issues.

  Taxpayers would be wise to recall the impact automatic cost-of-living adjustments (COLA’s) have had on pension systems and on property taxes, if they aren’t already frightened at the thought of the city indexing their property taxes. Memo to the fearful: the mayor has described her property tax proposal as a demonstration of leadership. Far from it. It’s a politically clever proposal to increase property taxes every year for eternity or until hell freezes over. Clever, because it’s a way to get out of having future property tax debates, especially in the proposal’s second year, when it will be election season.

  The entire budget process has shown a lack of leadership. Deferring $926 million in debt payments due this year and next to future budgets and refusing to identify the so-called budget efficiencies or the yet-to-be negotiated contract savings that will supposedly save the city $430 million is not leadership. Caving in to the Chicago Teachers Union by giving CPS $187 million in Tax Increment Financing (TIF) surplus revenues that could have been used to help finance city employee pensions is not leadership. Chicago is already the only city in the state that picks up the employee share of its public school district's teacher pensions.

  Leadership would be directing the mayorly-controlled school board to use its own share of the TIF surplus (54 percent) to partially fund its own teacher pensions. That would allow the city to reduce its teacher pension contribution by the same amount and put those revenues into other underfunded city pension funds in dire need of them.

  The surplus windfall to the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is particularly cowardly considering the union’s uninterrupted recalcitrance to the reopening of school campuses to pre-school children and children with special needs. Those students, in particular, desperately need in person attention. How can more city funding for the schools can be justified when they are in their eighth month without in-school instruction.

  Further, CPS has been provided a historic record setting budget, despite seventeen straight years of reduced enrollment including almost 15,000 students lost just this year. And, CPS is likely to see a significant increase in federal support when the next federal COVID-19 stimulus package passes. Both Democrat and Republican proposals call for schools to receive more than five times the amount received in the CARES Act. In spite of all of that, Mayor Lightfoot is awarding $187 million in TIF surplus to the schools That is almost twice the Mayor’s proposed property tax increase!

  The proposed 2021 budget, like last year’s budget, is simply an attempt to buy time and political cover while hoping for another massive federal economic package. This places the City Council at a critical juncture. Cave in and pass it, knowing exactly what City Hall is up to. Or, exercise a “profile in courage,” reject it and demand a responsible budget, not dependent on any bailout. Biden is already calling on the Congress to pass the next aid package. When it arrives, treat it as a windfall and carefully strategize its use to improve the city’s long-term financial condition. This of course would require some real courage, not to mention vision and skill, and those, I am afraid, appear to be in short supply.

We've partnered with Blue Diamond to highlight clever tips and tricks for pulling off any holiday get-together without breaking a sweat. It's your party, after all, so you might as well enjoy it!

Holiday parties are one of my favorite things about winter. The seasonal cheer and chilly temperatures make an easy excuse for inviting all of your favorite people over for a night of delicious food, flowing wine, and an abundance of great conversation. Still, there's a lot that goes into throwing a festive fête , especially if you plan on hosting a large crowd.

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You don’t have to know me well to know that I love martinis. Dirty, gin, extra olives. Over the years, the finer details have swayed back and forth, like birds or branches or birds on branches. Sometimes I grab a coupe. Most times, a rocks glass. Maybe an ice cube will tag along, to melt and mellow the mood. Maybe the olives will be Castelvetrano—or pimiento-stuffed—but never blue cheese. These days, the gin-to-vermouth ratio is slowly but surely becoming more and more lopsided, leaning away from the classic 2:1, toward a Julia Child–esque “upside-down,” where that number flip-flops.

But the more martinis I drank, the more I realized that I had a problem. Let’s call it, The Olive Problem. Here’s what happened. If you want your kitchen to be martini-ready, you only need a few items on hand: gin, dry vermouth, olives, and olive brine. The last two are supposedly the most obvious—a two-in-one, score!—but here’s the catch. Pimiento-stuffed olives live in olive brine—less like fish in the sea, more like fish in an overcrowded tank, where there’s no room to swim.

Come martini time, you snag a couple olives, splash a little brine, shake, shake, shake, done. This is all well and good for the first few. But fast-forward a couple weeks and, boom, it’s: The Olive Problem. By the time you use up all the brine, you still have a ton of olives. This led to a few emergency pickle brine martinis, which are actually quite good.

But, anyway, not for every night. The Olive Problem becomes even worse if you just happen to fall in love with Castelvetranos (it just happened, who knows how?). Their brine is too watery and sweet for martinis, so now you’re buying Castelvetrano olives for the olives and pimiento-stuffed olives for the brine, which you’re always running out of.

There has to be a better way, right? There always is. One day, I was wandering Whole Foods (you know when you go in for one thing, then walk out with seven?) and I stumbled upon bottled olive brine. Like, without the olives. You can find this in other stores—or, just order online. I like to buy a few at once—one in the fridge, extras in the pantry. Olive Problem: solved.

What’s your favorite recipe that uses olives (or olive brine!)? Tell us about it in the comments.

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