It's the Chicago Way
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Mayor Brandon Johnson announced Wednesday that the city of Chicago is facing a projected $538 million budget deficit for 2024 – a financial burden his administration blamed in part on the growing cost of caring for migrants.
Since asylum seekers began arriving one year ago, the city is now hosting at least 13,000 migrants who are living at airports, police stations and shelters spread across the city.
According to latest budget projections released by the Johnson administration, records show at least $200 million of the deficit stems from special project costs – which includes caring for new arrivals to the city of Chicago.
The records show since October of last year, the city has spent at least $83 million on the crisis.
The bulk of that money – more than $56 million – went to Favorite Healthcare Staffing – a Kansas-based company whose employees work in the city’s shelters.
In response to our Freedom of Information Act requests, the city has so far provided just two invoices – showing how much Favorite staffers are being paid.
One invoice from the now-closed shelter at Truman College shows a facility manager made $14,000 in one week last December.
Another invoice shows a nurse earned $20,000 during a week in December.
That same week – that shelter manager’s invoice billed for more than $14,000. All those employees’ figures included the employees being paid for overtime. The hourly rate for the registered nurse was $195 an hour. The facility manager earned $135 an hour.
Nice work if you can
bribeget it. -
Hmm. Doesn't quite add up to the $538M deficit, now does it. A convenient scapegoat for bad management.
