>> Mayor Brandon Johnson's budget proposal, squeaks by City Council.

Meanwhile, prosecutors are set to rest their case against former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.

And it's a growing debate in Illinois whether to put tighter regulations on the hemp industry here with all that and more is, of course, our spotlight politics team Amanda, Vicki Hatter, Sharon and Nick Bloomberg.

Welcome back.

Team.

So the mayor finally got a budget deal passed here's a little bit of what a supporter and an opponent of the budget had to say it.

City Council.

>> The truth is that this budget is fiscally responsible and it is putting a down payment down on our future.

It's just smoke and mirrors.

>> Don't congratulate yourselves.

Colleagues.

For having pastor responsible budget that eliminate a property tax increase because guess what?

You come back here next year, scratching your head saying, well, how on Earth did we get to this place?

>> It has man, what a road it has been.

Heather, you've reported that Chicago's finances remain badly out of whack.

Does this budget fix that problem?

>> Well, the ultimate arbiter of that will be the Wall Street rating agencies that will now decide whether the city is as credit worthy as it was in the past.

And there are a lot of factors that go into that decisions.

None of them are really clear or certain based on like objective criteria.

But it will honestly hurt the city that the city council refuse to raise property taxes because that is the most stable and effective way for the city to pay its bills.

Now I asked Mayor Johnson about this after the budget vote.

He said he hoped that the Wall Street ranging Superbook at everything else.

Chicago has going for it.

You know, a diverse workforce, a diverse economy, labor, peace.

And he said that, you know, Chicago is going to figure this out.

But its finances seriously remain out of And by the way, the credit ratings agencies already have a warnings that they have issued to Chicago public schools.

And of course, that is still unresolved.

When you look at the city's overall budget picture.

Yeah, I think when they're taking on those sorts of decisions, you know, labor peace is certainly a positive in terms of, you know, the political yeah, health field.

But >> there is a real cost to the city to any of these contracts, particularly ones that are more favorable to union members.

That doesn't mean those folks don't deserve it.

But that's also something.

>> That has to be taken into account.

When you're looking at the cost of running the city didn't a previous Chicago mayor have lots of labor peace as well.

But the pension problem little Yes.

And that is part of what Mayor Johnson is dealing with.

The city is pension.

Bill is nearly 3 billion dollars in 2025.

That means that money isn't available for.

>> Services and police and mental health care.

And the mayor says that there's not really anything the city can do to sort of, you know, bring those in line.

And they're hoping for some help from some state lawmakers for Let's come back to that in a minute.

Because Johnson acknowledged, as you said, Heather, that the city can't fix its financial problems on its own on and we'll need state officials to change the law in order to do what he calls tax the rich.

He knows he's not going to be easy and the mayor knows it.

>> We can.

I give up just because someone says no, we cannot give up just because they sent out text messages blasting the interest of working people.

You have a fighter and the I didn't get here as a politician, I go to this seat as an organizer as a part of the working movement in this city.

all that snow come up.

Buckle up.

You know, the fight is real.

>> Michael up and buckle up.

Like only a Chicago mayor can say a man to any reason to believe that Springfield has the ability or the inclination to find more money for Chicago.

I mean, they would have the ability to make certain changes in law that would free up Chicago to do some of what the mayor wants to.

They have that inclination I to be clear, you had Illinois, try them win.

>> Governor Pritzker put a lot of his own political capital and some of his money.

He's got lots of into trying to change the tax structure to a graduated rate so that the wealthy could be taxed at a higher rate in voters said no to it.

There is certainly change perhaps in the atmosphere.

You no longer have Ken Griffin here to find a position to it.

Might there be more success, second go-around, perhaps.

But the governor has shown no indication that he wants to go back and try again.

That was a real big loss for him.

And I don't think he's a great fan of losing.

By the way, you also had a Johnson despite his saying knuckle up.

Buckle up.

He did not succeed in passing the tax that would have allowed him to increase taxes paid on high selling real estate sales.

So bring home Chicago.

Exactly.

I have a home, but I don't think that there is really an appetite for that.

And so out of the Illinois is going to have its own budget issues.

We'll be talking about that.

Plenty compact.

Your pick, of Mayor Johnson has filled 10 of the 11 seats on the Chicago school board.

The newly elected hybrid board.

so he still controls Nic, what can you tell us about the folks that chosen?

That's right.

You we were waiting for Monday night deadline for the mayor to make these picks.

>> As you mentioned, 10 out of 11, he gets to pick 10 board members and one president, the president is going to be Sean Hardin whose the South side native is a former CPS employee.

4 of the folks that the mayor announced are already serving on this interim appointed board that we have now, there were also 4 of them who were unsuccessful candidates in the elections that were held in the last month.

They were backed by the CTU.

Obviously a close ally and former employer of Mayor Johnson.

You know, a lot of these folks have have education experience have sort of progressive community organizing work, the kinds of people that you would expect the mayor to be appointed to this board.

So clearly with with the folks that he's put into place, there's, you know, basically 15 out of 21 that are more or less line with the CTU.

We didn't get any explanation as to why that 11th pick wasn't announced.

It's not really clear under state law.

If there's any sort of a penalty, there doesn't appear to be for missing the deadline.

So he's mostly there.

But we're one more right now.

One more of Heather new boards gonna have a lot on their plate.

Obviously when they take their seats on January.

15th, what's on the agenda?

Well, assuming that the that the interim for doesn't reach a deal with the Chicago teachers union, that will be a number one on their list to figure out.

Not only do they have to figure about what that deal includes.

They have to figure out how to pay for it because the district's 2025 budget will have to be amended to sort of.

>> Give her a teachers raises and to expand whatever they end up agreeing to in terms of staffing and other services for students.

That CTU has demanded as part of that contract.

They will also have to figure out the fate of Co Pedro Martinez, the mayor has tried to oust him.

The previous appointed board certain declined to do so.

The interim board hasn't quite gotten there yet.

So it is not clear whether this elected board will move forward again, they can dismiss Pedro Martinez for cars immediately or trigger a six-month transition period.

And then, of course, the big question is who this board will hired lead the police, the school district at in in this next era.

So big, big And of course, President elect Donald Trump has promised to make ground 0 for his mass deportation issue.

There are thousands of undocumented students in Chicago.

Public schools and the school district is really worried that ICE agents will target those students and their parents on the school and eliminating the Department of Education has getting up to speed.

I mean, you talk about all of these issues, but this is a huge budget, a huge bureaucracy that matters, of course, to all Chicago families, whether you have a student in CPS or not.

And so outside of any of those issues, this is a huge change to contend with.

It'll also be interesting to see how this group of folks start to work together because this is not a small board.

They've got a lot to do for him.

These folks might kind know each other, but they might not.

And then it's going to be interesting to see how the how they sort of coalesced to get work done.

And I wonder, too, to what degree the city council is going to try to continue to flex the very limited muscle that it has in this regard.

>> But, you know, we saw a lot of contention after that, you know, board unanimously resigned.

And there is the interim board, you really quickly put into place that angered a lot of older people.

So it'll be interesting to see if they try to have any additional role here.

But at this point now the mayor made his picks, which he is legally entitled to do so I'm not sure what more might happen there, but I'm kind of interested to see whether that debate continues.

So let's get to the Vatican trial quickly.

Nic, prosecutors are expected to rest their case tomorrow.

And the king are corruptions trial of former House Speaker Michael Madigan.

Of course, what is the latest?

Yeah, we are 2 months into the trial proper Yes, the prosecutors have, you know, finish other testimony.

They believe all their evidence presentation as well.

That's the long break today to make sure that all their ducks in a row.

They're expected to wrap things up and then the defense gets its turn.

They're going to have, you know, just a few day, just a couple of days this week and then their course off next week for the Christmas holiday.

But it's going to be very interesting.

We've certainly seen, you know, plenty vigorous cross-examination in this case.

But the defense has not yet, you know, mounted its own case, called it on witnesses.

So that's way where we are headed.

One witness who prosecutors fought to put on the stand was former state Representative Eddie Acevedo who testified both yesterday and today.

Why is he important to the prosecution?

Would you say, well, he is sort of an exemplar of one of these.

Do nothing consulting contracts that, you know, prosecutors say Madigan was, you know, conspiring to get these deals for folks, you TNT ComEd.

And it was interesting because it was pretty contentious testimony, you know, Acevedo has and myriad of health issues.

He says he's been diagnosed with dementia with a tumor, that he has seizure issues, that he has heart problems.

And defense lawyers said this guy's not credible.

In addition to sort of, you know, past issues where they've said he's not a reliable narrator.

He has a drinking issue that they've tried to bring up.

And on top of all these health problems, they said we can't you know, this testimony is going to be garbled.

And that was sort of born out.

I mean, they asked him to, you know, go back and comment on some of the previous testimony that he gave to a grand jury about having a do nothing consulting contract.

But then on the stand this week, he said, no, I was I was having meetings.

I was feeling people in.

And they said, sir, actually, here is your testimony where you said none of that happened.

And he essentially said, OK, if that's what I told you.

So it it kind of a, you know, exemplified what the potential issues with a spate testimony here were and why people wanted to a longer at all.

If that that was sort of the point to show that he was bumbling, perhaps outside of his health issues.

And that was the point.

Put him on the stand to who would hire this guy, right?

You have to.

that, you know, some of the calculus, right?

You have to imagine prosecutors had a reason to put on someone who they knew was likely to give some conflicting confusing testimony, stoic.

They're flying by the seat our pants are.

And it's I would I would guess not not not this