Roderick Sawyer and Ja'Mal Green attend a mayoral forum Jan. 26.

 Roderick Sawyer and Ja'Mal Green attend a mayoral forum Jan. 26.

Civic Federation President Laurence Msallwho passed away suddenly on Saturday after having complications from a surgery, said earlier that critical issues like crime that have dominated this election cycle can’t be addressed without a healthy budget.

“There are not easy answers for the city’s longer-term financial challenges,” Msall said earlier.

Indeed, none of the mayoral candidates want to focus on the city’s economic woes, and most have been reluctant to propose specific plans or potentially unpopular solutions.

Employee pensions

When she took office in 2019, Lightfoot inherited a plan that steeply ramped up payments toward grossly underfunded pensions: Ten years ago, contributions to the city’s four retiree funds were about $480 million annually. In 2024, they’re projected to cost $2.4 billion, a sum that will keep increasing in decades to come.