Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s plan to use a $12.5 million gas and mass transit card giveaway to see and raise mayoral challenger Willie Wilson squeaked through the City Council on Wednesday.
The vote was 26 to 23.
Ald. Ray Lopez (15th) was among the no votes. He and Wilson have already joined, what’s expected to be a crowded race for mayor aimed at forcing Lightfoot into political retirement after a single term.
“I applaud this Council and you” for trying to do something to help Chicagoans squeezed by inflation, “But this is 100 percent the wrong way to go.”
“Gift cards and Ventra cards do not solve the issues facing our residents. To say it comes off as a gimmick would be an understatement,” Lopez said.
Ald. Leslie Hairston (5th) said “something is not right” when the city “gives $3 million to the food depository” and more than four times that much for gas and mass transit cards.
“I might get two full tanks of gas—and then what?” Hairston said..
“It’s not that we’re against it. It’s just not what we need.”
Downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) urged his colleagues to “forego the gas giveaway” and plow all $12.5 million into improving CTA security to lure back passengers too afraid to ride for fear of being mugged or worse.
“I don’t think as a matter of policy the city should be subsidizing fossil fuels,” Reilly said.
Prior to the final vote, Lightfoot delivered an impassioned speech from the rostrum in favor of the giveaway she claims is desperately needed to help Chicagoans who are “hurting.”
“Are we solving every problem with this? Of course not. It’s a modest program. But, the suggestion that it’s a gimmick. It’s a stunt. The mayor is political. Let’s put all that nonsense aside,” the mayor said.
“The bottom line is, in this city, there are people in Chicago who barely have a couple dollars in their pocket and now, they cannot meet a basic need, which is the need for transportation...People in this city are hurting badly and we feel—I feel—we have an obligation to address this need. This is an emergency.”
It takes only two alderpersons to delay consideration of any matter until the next council meeting. They don’t even need to give a reason.
This time, there were plenty of reasons given during a virtual avalanche of criticism.
But, nobody chose to delay the vote—and Transportation Committee Chairman Howard Brookins (21st) thinks he knows why.
Anybody who dared to stall the plan to dole out 50,000 gas cards worth $150 each and 100,000 Ventra cards worth $50 is playing with fire.
“They risk a backlash because we know it’s extremely popular. We know that it is needed. And people are hurting,” Brookins said.
“To rip away a chance to get a significant benefit would not endear them to the public.”
With summer driving season fast approaching, Brookins said motorists are already calling ward offices to say they want the cards.
“Even with the latest round of gas giveaways by Dr. Wilson, they still remain insanely popular. And I don’t see that going away soon. I saw a guy saying he waited in line to be the first person in line and he was so thankful because now, he can buy his prescription medication,” Brookins said.
The program that Lightfoot calls “Chicago Moves” would dole out 50,000 gas cards worth $150 each and 100,000 Ventra cards worth $50.
Opposition forced Lightfoot to make several tweaks just to get it through committee.
The income ceiling for eligibility was lowered, and three-fourths of the $7.5 million in gas cards will be reserved for South and West Side neighborhoods defined by the city as “high-mobility hardship community areas.” The eligibility area was further broadened on Wednesday.
The rest will be distributed through citywide lotteries “in equal portions to each ward,” officials said.
On Wednesday, Black Caucus Chairman Jason Ervin (28th) once again led the charge for the mayor’s giveaway after Lightfoot heeded his call to earmark most of the money for “transportation challenged” communities like his own.
“We need to help the most challenged—not only by COVID but be economic conditions. Anything we can do to give people a leg up” will be welcomed, Ervin said.
Ald. George Cardenas (12th) argued that Lightfoot is being unfairly taken to task for giveaways that were tolerated and embraced by her predecessors.
“All of the sudden this mayor, who happens to be a female, African-American mayor, does it and it’s a problem,” Cardenas said.
“I don’t know. I feel like, what’s going on here? Seriously. You’re doing it for political reasons. There’s folks here running for office. Maybe more will announce tomorrow. I don’t know. Sounds to me political.”
The gas cards and Ventra cards will go to winners of rolling lotteries that start in May and continue in four more monthly waves through the summer.
Gas card lottery entrants must be motorists living in Chicago, 18 years or older, with a valid city sticker and a maximum household income of 100% of the area median income. That puts the revised income limit at $93,200 for a family of four. Ventra lottery entrants do not have to be motorists or have a city sticker.
Applications must be submitted by the first day of each month for lotteries conducted the second week of each month.
The gas cards will be valid for one year and may be spent only on gas, and only at 417 “active filling stations” within the city limits. Nine stations have been excluded from the program because they are “not in good standing with the city,” officials said.
