Chicago City Council Progressive Reform Caucus

The Progressive Reform Caucus of the Chicago City Council is a bloc of aldermen in the Chicago City Council that was formed in 2013.[1][2] Its stated mission statement is "creating a more just and equal Chicago, combating all forms of discrimination, and advancing public policies that offer genuine opportunity to all Chicagoans, especially those who have been left out of our society’s prosperity."[3][4] It currently has 18 members, out of the council's 50 aldermen.

Progressive Reform Caucus
ChairSophia King
SecretaryAndre Vasquez
TreasurerMaria Hadden
Founded2013 (2013)
IdeologyProgressivism
Seats in Chicago City Council
18 / 50
Website
chicagoprogressivecaucus.com

History

The caucus was founded by nine aldermen in 2013, after having informally collaborated since 2012.[1][2][5] There had been a "loose amalgamation of self-described progressives" in the council prior to this, but it had not been a formalized organization.[1] Members of the caucus had historically been less aligned with Mayor Rahm Emanuel than average aldermen.[5] The day after the formation of the Progressive Reform Caucus, a group of other aldermen who self-identified as progressives formed the Paul Douglas Alliance, with the goal of working in a more aligned fashion with Mayor Emanuel.[5]

The caucus has formed a political action committee (PAC) with the same name.[6][2] As of June 2020, the largest donors to the PAC were labor unions: SEIU Illinois Council, AFSCME Illinois Council No. 31, and Chicago Teachers Union.[6]

The chairs of the caucus have been Scott Waguespack (2015-19), Susan Sadlowski Garza (2019-20), and Sophia King (2020-present).[7][8][9]

Membership

During the 2015–19 term, the caucus consisted of 10 members.[7] Two of the 10 members lost re-election in 2019, but with ten newly elected aldermen joining the caucus, membership increased to 18 at the start of the 2019–23 term.[10][11]

Current members
Membership in Chicago City Council Progressive Reform Caucus, as of June 2019

The following table lists current aldermen who are affiliated with the Progressive Reform Caucus.[7] Several new aldermen who had campaigned as progressives were widely expected to join the caucus after the 2019 Chicago aldermanic election.[12][13][14][15][16][17]

Member Ward Joined
Daniel La Spata 1 2019[10]
Sophia King 4 2016[18]
Leslie Hairston 5 2013[1]
Roderick Sawyer 6 2013[1]
Susan Sadlowski Garza 10 2015[19]
Stephanie Coleman 16 2019[11][17]
David Moore 17 2015[20]
Jeanette Taylor 20 2019[10]
Michael Rodriguez 22 2019[10]
Byron Sigcho-Lopez 25 2019[10]
Chris Taliaferro 29 2015[19]
Felix Cardona Jr. 31 2019[10]
Scott Waguespack 32 2013[1]
Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez 33 2019[10]
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa 35 2015[20]
Andre Vasquez 40 2019[10]
Matt Martin 47 2019[10]
Maria Hadden 49 2019[10]

Past members
Member Ward Joined Left
Toni Foulkes 16 2013[1] 2019; lost re-election
John Arena 45 2013[1] 2019; lost re-election
Ricardo Muñoz 22 2013[1] 2019; removed after alleged unauthorized use of caucus PAC funds[21]
Ameya Pawar 47 2013[1] 2019; did not run for re-election as alderman
Nicholas Sposato 36; 38 2013[1] 2016; left due to health issues and ideological disagreements[18][22]
Bob Fioretti 2 2013[1] 2015; term ended[20]

Agenda and actions

2019–23 City Council term

In August 2019, ten members of the caucus urged Mayor Lori Lightfoot to address the city's budget deficit by enacting a financial transaction tax or corporate head tax, rather than increasing property taxes or making cuts to city services.[23] A month later, they outlined the specifics of their proposal, further suggesting a tax on office leases, a hotel tax increase, a tax on vacant commercial properties, and a local income tax on those making over $100,000 a year.[24][25] Furthermore, they proposed a moratorium on the Chicago Police Department budget, a moratorium on privatization of city services, an end to Tax increment financing subsidies in wealthy neighborhoods, and increased spending on affordable housing, mental health, early childhood education, and a youth jobs program.[24] The aldermen suggested that the Progressive Caucus could act as a bloc on these issues in the upcoming budget debate.[23][24]

In November 2019, in response to Mayor Lightfoot's plan for raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2021, the Progressive Caucus pushed to eliminate the tipped minimum wage and allow restaurant workers and others in this category to earn the $15 minimum wage.[26][27] Later that month, half of the caucus' members (La Spata, Taylor, Rodriguez, Sigcho-Lopez, Rodriguez Sanchez, Ramirez Rosa, Vasquez, Martin, and Hadden) voted against Mayor Lightfoot's proposed annual budget for 2020, which passed by a vote of 39-11.[28]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, members of the Progressive Caucus conducted telephone check-ins with senior citizens living in their wards.[29]

During the George Floyd protests in late May and early June 2020, the Progressive Caucus renewed calls for the City to negotiate a new contract with the Chicago Police Department that would include systematic reforms, and introduced a resolution to that effect.[30][31] In July 2020, the Caucus called for an end to the $33 million contract for police officers to be present in Chicago Public Schools, and for a reinvestment of those funds in alternative strategies for school safety.[32] Later that month, the Caucus criticized the Chicago Police Department for its actions during a July 17 protest in Grant Park and called on the Parks Department to remove the park's statue of Christopher Columbus.[33]

gollark: What, the whole island?
gollark: When I downloaded it it extracted to a few gigabytes, not petabytes.
gollark: I have a copy of that without the "Trek Wars" at the bottom, wonder who added that.
gollark: In KSP I wanted to make a nuclear-powered aircraft for some reason, and thanks to it not carrying fuel it was very light, but I'm bad at designing planes so it couldn't turn well. So I added some RCS which ran off the atmosphere and some electricity (seems to be from a mod), and it turns out it can actually take off with that.
gollark: One sort-of-VPNish thing you can do is rent a VPS (virtual private server) with lots of available bandwidth somewhere else, host a private VPN server on there, and connect your stuff to that.This doesn't really anonymize you - all your traffic, and nobody else's, will go via that VPS's IP address - but it (effectively, possibly not legally) puts your internet traffic under the regime of wherever your VPS is instead of your actual location.

References
  1. "Progressive Aldermen Unite, Vow to End 'Business as Usual'". DNAinfo Chicago. Archived from the original on 2019-05-27. Retrieved 2019-05-27.
  2. "City Council Progressive Reform Coalition Formalizes, Signs Statement of Principles Caucus to focus on creating "a more just and equal Chicago" « Chicago's 32nd Ward Service Website – Alderman Scott Waguespack". ward32.org. Retrieved 2019-05-27.
  3. "Progressive Reform Caucus of the Chicago City Council –". chicagoprogressivecaucus.com. Retrieved 2019-05-27.
  4. "Chicago Progressive Reform Caucus". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2019-05-27.
  5. "City Council Sprouts Dueling 'Progressive' Caucuses". HuffPost. 2013-03-14. Retrieved 2019-05-27.
  6. Reform, Illinois Campaign for Political. "Chicago Progressive Reform Caucus". Illinois Sunshine. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
  7. "Who We Are". chicagoprogressivecaucus.com. Retrieved 2019-05-27.
  8. "With new members, Chicago City Council members realign Progressive Reform Caucus". chicagotribune.com. 2019-06-12. Retrieved 2020-06-12.
  9. Kapos, Shia; Carrasco, Maria (2020-06-12). "PASS THE POPCORN! — PROGRESSIVES PICK ALD. KING — ANALYZING PRITZKER'S HIRES". POLITICO. Retrieved 2020-06-12.
  10. Chicago Tribune staff (2019-06-12). "With new members, Chicago City Council members realign Progressive Reform Caucus". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
  11. "Progressive Reform Caucus of the Chicago City Council –". 2019-08-26. Archived from the original on 2019-08-26. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  12. Kapos, Shia; Hurst, Adrienne. "PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS redefined — VAN DYKE's new digs — TCHEN's SMOLLETT connection". POLITICO. Retrieved 2019-05-27.
  13. Rodriguez, Alex. "How strong will the Progressive Caucus be now? Chicago's City Council is changing". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2019-05-27.
  14. Brown, Mark (2019-04-30). "Dynasty slayer Rodriguez Sanchez ready to build bridges—not rehash past battles". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2019-05-27.
  15. Perry, Grace. "Meet Your New Aldermen". Chicago magazine. Retrieved 2019-05-28.
  16. Rodriguez, Mike (2019-04-30). "First meeting with Progressive Reform Caucus members of the Chicago City Council. I'm looking forward to working with this group! @SSadlowskiGarza @45thWardChicago @aldsophiaking @MattMartinChi @Mariafor49 @CDRosa @RossanaFor33 @5thWardChicago @SigchoFor25 @DanielLaSpatapic.twitter.com/ZlqUew9aAH". @rodriguezfor22. Retrieved 2019-05-31.
  17. "The Chair of Chicago's Progressive Caucus is excited by the "different vibe" at City Hall". WGN Radio - 720 AM. 2019-06-13. Retrieved 2019-06-14.
  18. "Appointed By Rahm, Ald. Sophia King Joins Caucus That Often Opposes Him". DNAinfo Chicago. Archived from the original on 2019-05-27. Retrieved 2019-05-27.
  19. "Progressive Caucus Could Double". The Daily Line. 2015-05-16. Retrieved 2019-05-27.
  20. "Progressive Aldermen Getting Reinforcements on City Council". DNAinfo Chicago. Archived from the original on 2015-12-16. Retrieved 2019-05-27.
  21. "Ald. Muñoz Made $37K In 'Unauthorized Expenditures' From Progressive Caucus PAC Account". Block Club Chicago. Retrieved 2019-05-27.
  22. Spielman, Fran (2016-12-15). "Ald. Nick Sposato (38th) drops out of Progressive Caucus". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2019-05-27.
  23. Quig, A.D. (2019-08-28). "Progressives to Lightfoot: Tax biz to fill budget hole". Crain's Chicago Business. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
  24. Quig, A.D. (2019-09-10). "Head tax, LaSalle Street tax, vacancy tax on progressives' checklist for Lightfoot". Crain's Chicago Business. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  25. Spielman, Fran (2019-09-10). "Community and labor organizations propose $4.5 billion in new revenues to 're-imagine Chicago'". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2019-09-11.
  26. "Chicago Progressive Caucus calls for elimination of 'sub-minimum' wage for tipped workers". chicagoprogressivecaucus.com. 2019-11-13. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
  27. Byrne, John; Elejalde-Ruiz, Alexia (2019-11-13). "Mayor Lori Lightfoot proposes minimum wage hike that would boost tipped workers' pay — but not to full $15 an hour". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
  28. Spielman, Fran (2019-11-26). "City Council approves Lightfoot's $11.6 billion budget — with 11 'no' votes". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2019-12-06.
  29. Kapos, Shia (2020-04-02). "PRITZKER FOR PRESIDENT? — GETTING IN BUDGET BINDS — MISSION: PPE". POLITICO. Retrieved 2020-04-02.
  30. "Chicago Progressive Caucus Calls for Justice for George Floyd and Demand FOP Contract Reforms to protect Chicagoans". The Chicago Crusader. May 31, 2020. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
  31. "Chicago Progressive Caucus Calls for Justice for George Floyd and Demand FOP Contract Reforms to protect Chicagoans". chicagoprogressivecaucus.com. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
  32. "Chicago Progressive Caucus Calls for Removal of Chicago Police Officers From Public Schools and Investment in Alternatives Strategies that Improve School Safety". chicagoprogressivecaucus.com. July 2, 2020. Retrieved 2020-07-03.
  33. "Progressive Caucus Condemns Police Response to Protests, the FOP President's Call for the Feds, and Calls for the Removal of Columbus Statue in Grant Park". chicagoprogressivecaucus.com. July 20, 2020. Retrieved 2020-07-21.
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