Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) named Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot our November 2019 Porker of the Month for caving to the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) by agreeing to their billion-dollar demands.

Mayor Lightfoot “settled” on a $1.5 billion five-year deal with the CTU after an 11-day strike.  The deal gives teachers a 16 percent pay raise, even though teachers in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) have a median salary of $78,000, which is the highest in the U.S.  Mayor Lightfoot and the CTU agreed that up to 244 unused sick days, up from 40 days, can now be traded for pension credit, which will allow teachers to retire earlier, piling on even more pension debt.  The Windy City has one of the lowest credit ratings in the country and an $838 million deficit.  Pension liabilities grew by 76 percent in the last five years.  In order to bow to the union’s demands, Mayor Lightfoot announced vague, half baked plans to double taxes on restaurants and triple taxes on ride-sharing services, among other job killing ideas.

CAGW President Tom Schatz said, “By caving to the CTU’s demands, Mayor Lori Lightfoot proved she does not have Chicago taxpayers’ interests at heart.  She ran on a platform to fix the city’s worsening financial problems, yet the CTU strike and costly deal she made with the unions resulted in no reforms, to the detriment of students, taxpayers, and Chicago’s fiscal health.  Mayor Lightfoot’s deal gets a ‘F’ for unequivocally failing her own community.”

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.  For more than two decades, Porker of the Month is a dubious honor given to lawmakers and government officials who have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers.