CHICAGO- Following is the statement of Emma Tai, Executive Director of United Working Families (UWF) on Mayor Emanuel’s budget address.
“Mayor Emanuel’s budget speaks to his vision of Chicago: a tale of two cities, one for the wealthy and connected and one for the rest of us.
“This is a Mayor who cuts from our children’s education in order to pay for costly police brutality settlements and new police training facilities. His leadership has made Chicago a top destination for corporations and CEO’s while tens of thousands of working people, overwhelmingly African-American, leave the city, pushed out by sky-high rates of violence, gentrification, and unemployment.”
“His divestment in Chicago’s working families has led to a Black unemployment rate on par with the Great Depression and over 2,900 shootings in Chicago’s West and South side. Corporate tax breaks and sweetheart privatization deals are more of the same, and they’re not getting the job done. We call on Mayor Emanuel and aldermen to present real solutions that prioritize our working families, not the wealthy 1%.”
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United Working Families is an independent political organization by and for the 99%, established in 2014 by the Chicago Teachers Union, SEIU Healthcare, Action Now, and Grassroots Illinois Action.
