# Youth Budget Engagement Roundtable 7.9.25

- Date: July 10, 2025
- Type: Video
- Length: 39:23
- Topic: Budget
- Video: [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBWnxNv0xqo)
- Transcript: Machine transcription, 5,655 words ([text](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/files/transcripts/youtube/XBWnxNv0xqo.txt))
- Mayor: [Brandon Johnson](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor)

## Legislation

- [R2026-0023372: Call on Mayor Brandon Johnson and his administration to implement Year 2026 budget package](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/matter/R2026-0023372-call-mayor-brandon-johnson-his-administration)

## Description

Mayor Brandon Johnson attends the Harold Washington Library Youth Budget Engagement Roundtable.

## Transcript

[0:00](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=0) Yeah, today you'll get the opportunity to talk to city departments, share your insights to city leaders. We are so excited and happy to see you all again and engage with you to make our city a greater, better, stronger, safer Chicago. As we have so much on our agenda today, I would love to introduce the greatest frickin' budget director in the city of Chicago, Anita Guzman.

[0:32](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=32) All right, so I'm going to do exactly what he just did, but I want a much bigger, bigger, bigger response. OK, because the energy you give is the energy I'm going to give back to you. OK, so how is everybody doing tonight? All right. My name is Annette Guzman. I am the budget director for the city of Chicago, and I'm so excited to be with you guys tonight. My job, this thing isn't working.

[1:03](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=63) All right. There we go. Still not working for me. OK, there we go. Hopefully that's we'll figure that out. So my job tonight, other than coming to listen to you and the things that matter to you at your tables, is to just give us a little bit of background about the budget. By show of hands, how many people actually know how big the city's budget is?

[1:37](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=97) Yeah? A few of you? Would it be surprising to know that the city's budget is $70? billion dollars that's pretty big right yeah so it is it's a 17 billion dollar budget and it supports a ton of things that we're going to talk about tonight but before I do that I think I have some volunteers that are going to post some mics throughout the audience because I have a couple

[2:08](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=128) of questions for you guys so Sierra do we have those volunteers that can help us with the mics All right, if we can. The first question I have, and again, this is really the participation part of this. I really want to know what you guys know, because understanding the budget makes the conversations that you're going to have at the different tables that much richer, that much more informed. So the first thing I want to ask you guys is, what do you think the role of budgeting plays when it comes to public finance?

[2:47](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=167) And what I mean by public finance, I mean the role that money plays in how government works. So think about maybe your own budgets. Why do you budget? Raise your hand, and then we'll have someone come to you. I want you to say your name, what school you go to, and then give us your answer. So, again, the prompt is, what role does budgeting play in public finance, or why do we budget? We have some gentlemen in the center of the room.

[3:20](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=200) Name, school, and your answer. Hello and good afternoon. My name is Raymond Porter, and I go to Harold Washington College. And the role that budgeting plays in public finance is that it shows the city how much budgeting is basically kind of organizing all of your costs and your income, and it shows you exactly how much money you have to allocate towards certain projects and to make sure that you're doing it affordably and effectively. We don't want to overspend and we don't want to underspend. If there are implications that need to be spent on or need to be thoroughly investigated,

[3:55](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=235) then we'll look at our money, and that's kind of where public finance comes into that. Tell your name again. My name is Raymond Porter. Thank you. So according to our scholar over here, it is to allocate to specific projects or programs. So we have another willing participant. Who can tell us, what role does budgeting play? Why do we budget as a government? You can stand up, name, school, if you're still in high school, what grade you're in, and your answer.

[4:26](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=266) Hi, my name is Annika Godar, and I am a senior at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. And I worked with our entire budget last year, and it was also a very surprising large amount. But we found that really the importance of budgeting is making sure that each group, each organization, each activity is getting an equitable amount of support and that we're not letting other factors or systemic things interfere with how different groups are being supported

[5:00](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=300) and the different opportunities that they have at their own schools or in public presence. Thank you. So we want to make sure that we are allocating in an equitable manner. Let's get two more really brave volunteers to tell us what role does budgeting play, how do we use money, why do we budget. Okay. My name is Keon Hedarensen, also her at Washington College, got to represent.

[5:31](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=331) And another role budget plays in public finance is priority. Like, what are we prioritizing whenever we allocate money in the budget? And that's a big reason I came here today. Like, I want to see what the city is prioritizing. Prioritization. One more brave soul. Right, I see a hand over here. I see a hand in the front. All right, name, school, grade, and your answer.

[6:02](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=362) All right, hi, my name is Axel Amazola. The school I currently go to is Marine Leadership Academy. I'm an upcoming junior, and to answer the question is that we have to know the importance of budgeting, of how it's being used around the city and how it is used on a daily basis around every single part of the city.

[6:34](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=394) The transparency mechanism, right? It is how are we using the money. So can we just give a round of applause for everyone that gave an answer? It's not easy to stand up in a room full of your peers and give an answer. So I want to thank all of you who did that today. So let's talk about what role this plays. So it's a policy document, right? It tells us what it is that we're prioritizing,

[7:06](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=426) what it is that we believe should receive money in any given year, both in the short term and the long term. It's also an accountability metric. Talked about transparency, right? How are we stewarding the resources that are being given to us to support not only the people who live in our city, but the people who work in our city, the people who visit our city? So it's an accountability metric. Are we using it in the way that we said that we were going to use it, and is it to its best use?

[7:43](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=463) It's a planning tool. Our gentleman, I don't see him anymore, but he was sitting at that table, talked about we are allocating resources, right? And when it comes to budgets, we are planning both in the short term, so one to two years, as well as over a very long period of time, over several years, right? We not only are doing an annual budget, but we have grant budgeting, which supports programs over 3 to 5 to 7 to 10 years. We have capital budgets that are supporting projects that can span 20 years, right?

[8:16](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=496) So it is a planning tool. It's a distribution and allocation of resources. Simply put, think about this in the way that you would your own budget that you manage every single day of your life, right? It's about the money that you are able to bring in and how you spend that money, right? How are you allocating that in your day-to-day lives? Governments do it as well. And then finally, it is what we're doing here today. It's an avenue for public engagement. We sit here and listen because we want our budgets to reflect the very people who have to,

[8:56](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=536) who are impacted by the decisions that are made by government. And so the budget becomes... I don't know if any of you ever go to a city council meeting or to a budget hearing, but it becomes an avenue for those who live in a city, those who work in a city, to really tell their government, this is how we believe this money should be used. Alright, so, what resources are available to us as we're planning our budget? So you have, for those of you who may be mathematicians, who might be economists major, economics majors, you know that a budget has both a revenue side and an expenditure side.

[9:39](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=579) So we're going to talk about the revenue side for a second, because the revenue is what supports the expenditures. Without money, we cannot expend. And so there's all different types of revenue that the city, and the city of Chicago in particular, uses to support all of the activities that happen in the city. So we have local taxes. These are the things that we control. The city of Chicago has the ability to put in place taxes to support the provision of services to its residents, to its businesses, to those who visit the city of Chicago.

[10:16](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=616) We have fees that we put in place, and fees are generally for a specific provision of service. So, for instance, we have people that use our roads, right? Every day they drive a car on our road. That's really, really expensive to maintain, and we have people in the city government that are responsible for maintaining our roads. And so through what we call a city sticker, your car is registered in the city of Chicago in order to drive, if you're a resident of the city, in order to get the privilege of using our roads.

[10:54](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=654) Because as you're driving on them, you're wearing and tearing the road. We have what we call bond revenue. Our capital projects, infrastructure projects, think bridges, think cityscapes, think large infrastructure for the buildings that the city resides in, and for other types of infrastructure projects, we issue bonds into a capital market. So we have investors that give us money to support the infrastructure work that we do.

[11:27](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=687) One of our larger revenue sources is property taxes. It's the largest revenue source that any municipality has the ability to collect. And that property tax supports work that happens in the city of Chicago as well. Most of you might not know this, but governments provide services to other governments. Governments provide things in exchange for receiving revenue. And so whether it is the state of Illinois or the work that we might do with CPS, we enter into agreements where we might provide a service, and then we get compensated for that service.

[12:10](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=730) We also have special revenue funds. We're able to levy revenue sources for a very specific purpose. So one of the revenue sources that we receive is motor fuel revenue from the state of Illinois, and that's for people who pay for gas, right? If you go to the gas station, you fill up your car, you're paying a tax. And we take that money, or I should say the state takes that money, we get a portion of it, and we also use that to support the infrastructure work in the city of Chicago.

[12:43](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=763) We also have enterprise funds. I don't know if we have any of our infrastructure commissioners in the room, but the city has four enterprise funds. And the reason we call them enterprise funds is because they act like businesses. So we have two very large businesses in the city of Chicago called our airports. Anybody flown out of O'Hare or Midway before? Yes. That revenue, when the airlines, they pay to have counters at our airports.

[13:14](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=794) And so that revenue comes into the city of Chicago so that we can continue to operate our airports. We also have concessions at the airport. You may go to a restaurant at the airport. That's all revenue that the city receives in order to make sure that we continue to have world-class airports. And did anybody know that we actually became the, I think this month, the most traveled airport in the country? We beat Atlanta. Yay, I'm from Atlanta, so I can say that. So we have world-class airports here.

[13:44](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=824) We also have a very large water system, and so our Department of Water Management is one of the largest in the world, not just the country, the world, and they manage all of the water that flows through the city of Chicago as well as a number of surrounding municipalities and suburbs. And then finally, we received grant money. I know most of you have probably seen this in the news a lot lately because of what's happened at the federal level with the slashing of the federal budget.

[14:15](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=855) The city of Chicago receives almost 200, I'm sorry, the city of Chicago receives about $3 billion to $4 billion in grant revenue over the last several years, both from the federal government as well as pass-through money from the state. And so that's another very large source of revenue that the city receives. All right, so why do we budget, and what does that money go towards?

[14:47](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=887) So, again, it supports all of the activity that the city of Chicago does on behalf of its residents. And this is our organizational structure. If you were to translate this into a private sector company, we would have shareholders that would sit at the top of our organization. And our shareholders are the residents of the city of Chicago. You are at the top of our org structure. Beneath that, we have elected officials. The mayor is the chief executive of the organization.

[15:22](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=922) But then he has co-electeds that also are elected, and they include city council. So there's 50 alders that represent 50 wards. Some of you may have engaged with your alders before. If you haven't, feel free to come on down to city hall and talk to your alder. We also have a city clerk that is responsible for a myriad of things, including she's the official record keeper of our legislature, which is the city council. But she also is responsible for the provision of city stickers, the thing I talked about earlier, as well as the city key.

[15:58](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=958) So for those of you who might not know, it's another form of ID. And then finally, our city treasurer, who is the chief investment officer for the city of Chicago. All those resources I just talked about, she is responsible for investing those funds so that the city can ensure that it's receiving returns on investments of the funds that we have. And underneath all of those elected officials are all of the departments and agencies that provide services to the city of Chicago in the areas of regulatory.

[16:32](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=992) So we regulate certain activity that happens in the city of Chicago to make sure that we aren't abusing consumers, that businesses are in compliance with city ordinances. We have city development departments, so think about Department of Planning and Development, the Department of Housing that's really responsible for ensuring that development is happening in the city of Chicago. The biggest area of our budget is public safety, so, you know, fire department, our police department, our emergency management department, and all of the agencies that oversee our public safety offices.

[17:10](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=1030) Infrastructure, you've heard me say that a number of times, whether it's plowing the streets when it snows with our Department of Streets and Sanitation or it's our Department of Transportation that's responsible for making sure our roads are resurfaced, that our street lights are working or our traffic lights are working. Those are the infrastructure-type departments. Community services, which is probably something very near and dear to a number of you, the very space that we're sitting in are public libraries, right?

[17:46](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=1066) That is one example of our community services that is provided by the city. Finance and administration, which is the area I sit in, we're a support service to all of our departments to make sure that they're being able to operate appropriately. And then finally, legislation and elections. So we have sort of an independent body that runs all of the elections in the city of Chicago. All right, so I told you what our budget supports.

[18:18](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=1098) We also have a number of sister agencies. So when we talk about our budget, while we may provide money to support sister agencies through those intergovernmental agreements that I talked about, Now, when we sit down in October and November to talk through and negotiate the budget with city council, it's not the budget of these agencies. Chicago Public Schools, Park District, Chicago Transit Authority, Chicago Housing Authority, City Colleges of Chicago,

[18:52](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=1132) they all have their own governing boards that are responsible for the oversight. and appropriation of the budgets of those agencies. So you might go to a city council meeting and say, well, why aren't we talking about CPS's budget? Because city council is not the elected body that represents CPS. You might go to a city council meeting and you're wondering, why aren't we talking, or you might go to a city council meeting and asking, why aren't we talking about the city college's budget? Because, again, they have their own board of directors

[19:24](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=1164) that are responsible for their budget. So while you might find aspects of these agencies in our budget because we give them money or we provide them services, that isn't what our budget process is focused on. All right, what do we do when we budget? So two things. First, it's not working again.

[19:55](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=1195) Can you press forward? Oh, there we go. So the first thing we do is we have to develop a budget, and then we have to balance the budget. So if anybody doesn't get this cultural reference, you should watch the Cosby Show. One of my favorite episodes is when they play Monopoly, and it's all about how are you using money that you receive every single day to basically go about your daily life. So I think about our budget in the same way that I think about sometimes my household budget.

[20:26](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=1226) So after we develop and balance the budget, we then have to monitor our revenues and expenditures so that we stay within our budget. I think the gentleman earlier said we can't go over our budget. We have to make sure that the resources we have supports the expenditures that we plan on incurring. So where are we today? We are here. We are at the stage where we're developing our budget. That's why we're here to listen and talk to you to see what your priorities are. All right, so I have one more thing that I want to ask this audience.

[21:04](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=1264) So what do you do in this situation? So I have the same budget, but year over year. And this is sort of an approximation of the things that could be in the budget of someone around a little bit younger than me, right? So you might have to pay for food, you might have to pay for your mobile phone, you want to go to the movies, you might have some games that you spend money on, maybe clothing, we all like to look fly, and school supplies, right?

[21:39](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=1299) And in this year, meaning 2025, that is about approximately $375. But we all know that year over year, the cost of things grows, right? And while you might have $375 today and you might have $375 tomorrow, the cost of the things that you want to spend money on could be more expensive next year. And so in this example, they got $3.5 more expensive because of inflation.

[22:11](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=1331) So the cost of goods increases every single year. So what do you do when the things that you regularly pay for get more expensive, But the money that you have available to you is exactly the same. So I'm going to ask a couple people. What do you do? Volunteers. We have one person right here in the black shirt. Black shirt. So, again, name, school, and your answer. Yeah, right here.

[22:45](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=1365) My name is Jesse C. Zneros. I'm an attorney and an incoming freshman at USC. And to answer your question, I feel like you're making the same amount of money, but things are getting more expensive, I feel like you have to maybe make a few cuts and try to see what's more important than other things. So I feel like it's a really hard decision to make to try to narrow down the most important things and see what you really need and find the difference between things that you need

[23:16](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=1396) and things that you want, and things that you want, obviously, they're not as important as the things you might need. Perfect. So that's one answer. Do we have a gentleman up front who has his hand up? Remember name, school, and then your answer. School did you go to? Okay, that's fine. Suburbs are good, too.

[23:46](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=1426) Wait, hold on. We're going to try a different one. All right. What in brief is basically like. It's like, just hustle harder for real. Hustle hard? Okay. Yeah, just like, you just gotta find more skills with yourself because nowadays, like, with the new generation, like, there's so many outlets for us to make money. So if you can't find it, I feel like you're not trying hard enough. Because, like, I feel like you can vouch, like, from your era to now, there's way more options out here for us positively and to put us in a room like this every day

[24:19](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=1459) to make some changes to your life, either college or by working hard, like HVAC or something like that. It's like you can get it a different way. So your answer is go get more money. Yeah. Which this is a problem, too, because you shouldn't have to do that, but you do want to do that because we like the vacations. We like clothes. You like stuff. I get it. Yeah. All right, one more. Do we have one more answer right here, young lady in the front?

[24:50](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=1490) Hello, my name is Tia Ford, and I'm a rising senior at Howard University. You know who I would say at that. No, but like this gentleman said, I would have to agree, really deciding, like, your wants and your needs. So not just being outside, spurging your money, but really deciding what you really want and what you really need. Can you keep the mic for me for a second? I want to talk to you. Yes. So is that difficult to do? Very hard. Why is it difficult?

[25:20](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=1520) It's hard because, you know, you're trying to live up to society. You know, you want to look fly. You want to have all the new things, especially seeing social media, like the influencers. You want to live up to the influencers. So it's really hard to decide what you really want and what you really need, especially in college. I would say it's really hard. Yeah. Thank you. And I tried to choose things that was outside of entertainment that are less about wanting.

[25:52](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=1552) And, you know, a lot of these are about needs, right? If you're a kid, you've got to get to school, right? You've got to figure out how to, you know, the transportation aspect. If you're in school, you've got to figure out how to eat, right? If you're in school, you've got to, you know, most of the times we need to stay in communication with our family. So you need phones. So these are hard decisions because at the end of the day, these are, you know, things that you likely do need. All right, so what are the answers?

[26:22](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=1582) So you can, I'm sorry, guys, I don't know why this isn't working for me. You can increase your resources. You can go get some more money, right? So when I was, you know, the age of those in the room, I was like, I want money. I went and got a job, right? I've been working since I was very young. You can also decrease your expenditures, right, as our gentleman over here said. You can also do both, right? You can both raise revenue, raise your resources, cut your expenditures. There might be other things.

[26:52](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=1612) I just mentioned some of the things that might be in your budget. There might be other things that you want to do. You might want to go to more movies throughout the year. You might want to buy more clothes throughout the year, right? And so you might be able to do more with more resources. So this is perpetually sort of the situation that municipal state governments find themselves in, especially those when they are in structural imbalances where their revenues might be less than their expenditures.

[27:26](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=1646) They're constantly having to do this, what is our priority, right? What do we want to spend money on? Where do we, if we have to cut, where do we cut? Where is the cut not going to hurt the most? And so I wanted to do this example for you because these are the conversations that your leaders are having on a constant basis, right? When the resources and the revenues aren't meeting the cost that it takes to actually provide services, or when there's things that you know the government hasn't done but you think that they should be doing,

[28:02](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=1682) how do they do that if the revenues aren't meeting the expenditures? And we're in a part of our kind of history right now where our revenues are not growing as fast, right, because of inflation, because of policies that are happening at the federal level under the current administration. Businesses are laying people off trying to conserve money, and so that means that we make less money.

[28:33](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=1713) And so I just wanted to give you an example of the discussions that are happening around the budget. So finally, the budget calendar, where are we so far this year? So we are in July, so we have not, we literally have not opened up the budget to hear from departments yet because we wanted to make sure that we got them in front of you first. We wanted them to hear from you, hear what's important for you as it relates to the city budget. And then, starting next week, they will begin to be able to put in their requests for the priorities in the budget.

[29:11](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=1751) Once we get through that phase, we work with our departments. we try to figure out where is our revenue coming in, where are our expenditures coming in, and we try to work it so that those priorities are reflective of the things that we've heard in these meetings. We had three of these earlier at the end of last month. We want to make sure that our budgets are reflecting the things that we're hearing from our communities. So once we do that, we work really, really hard to balance the budget, and the mayor presents his budget in mid-October.

[29:43](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=1783) And then the departments have the amazing fortune of going before city council to explain those priorities, explain why they are asking for funding for certain things. And city council is able to then either, you know, say, yep, we agree, or be able to make adjustments based on what they think the priorities are. And once that all happens, they vote and appropriate a budget for the next year, which goes into effect in January 1 of the next year.

[30:20](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=1820) And so we are required by state law to pass a budget no later than the end of December. And so that's why every year, you know, there's these intense conversations that are happening about what we should be prioritizing. And so with that, I'm going to hand it back to our fearful leader on the Youth Commission to introduce the mayor. Thank you, everybody, for your time.

[31:11](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=1871) Thank you, Director Guzman, for your leadership and for the lesson you just gave to all of us. I definitely learned something new from today. But now it's my complete honor to introduce another kid from the west side that also wants to make a change in the world. the greatest frickin' mayor for the city of Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson. Well, good evening, everyone.

[31:42](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=1902) Thank you, Jonathan. If you all could just do me a favor just one more time, put your hands together for Jonathan. Thank you for your leadership. It's really great to see so many of you out this evening. I do want to thank a few people just really quick. I want to thank our budget director, Annette Guzman. Of course, our chief of community engagement, Sarah Mathers. and the mayor's youth commission, all the commissioners, first deputies, and the staff that are here today.

[32:13](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=1933) I'm glad that DJ Hot Rod has been able to join us again another year. Yeah, y'all going to give it up for DJ Hot Rod. And, of course, this incredible historic building named after the first black mayor, the city of Chicago here at Washington Library, for having us tonight. Listen, you all are the most important reason why I'm here tonight. I want to thank all of you as young people for taking the time and the effort to be here today to have these important discussions about the city's budget and, quite frankly, your future.

[32:50](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=1970) All of you are playing an important role by telling us your ideas and stories, by telling us about your experiences and the challenges of living in Chicago. Your feedback is critical to creating a budget that truly reflects the people of Chicago, including you all as young people. This is your opportunity to tell us exactly what you think and what the city should do to make sure that the people of our respective neighborhoods are fully supported. With your knowledge and input, we can best allocate funding to work towards the things that truly matter,

[33:25](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=2005) the things that allow for us to build the safest, most affordable big city in America. We have to build more affordable homes. We have to make sure that we are spending the necessary resources to have real community safety, mental health support for you all, making sure that we have youth employment. You know, this morning we were able to announce 28,893 young people have jobs because of your input.

[34:04](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=2044) You all are leading the way for environmental justice and neighborhood development as a whole. So I want you all to stay together along this journey and throughout this entire budget process. It doesn't end with this discussion. I'm going to need each and every one of you to connect with your alders, to come down to City Hall, to organize community meetings, to ensure that the investments that we are making, that we can hold on to them and that we can grow them as well. So today's discussion, I want you to think deeply about the challenges that you face.

[34:39](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=2079) Think about the stories that you hear from your peers, the people that you go to school with, who are struggling day and day, who are in desperate need to see transformation in this city. Please know that I take your feedback seriously. your ideas have value you are part of the solution and you are helping us chart a brighter future for all of you so listen as I close

[35:10](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=2110) your unique voices and perspectives and experiences you have the power to open the eyes of people around you you have something to add you have to know your power you are important to this city you are important to me personally You deserve the tools and the resources that are needed to succeed and to have a productive, healthy life. I'm going to give a special shout out to the rising seniors. What's up, class of 26?

[35:47](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=2147) You are the leaders of today. Congratulations to the class of 2025. You are the bright example for young people who are yet to arrive. So I look forward to hearing your feedback. And you all do me a favor. I want you to bring everything in you into this experience, because there are so many naysayers who want to criminalize, who want to demonize you as young people.

[36:19](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=2179) But as long as I'm mayor of the city of Chicago, I will never turn my back on the young people of this city, because you are the reason why this city is positioned to transform. So help me build the greatest freaking city in America, the city of Chicago. God bless you all.

[36:55](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=2215) Thank you, Mayor Brendan Johnson, for your speech. Yes, congratulations to the class of 2025 again, and class of 2026, we're rising. It's our year finally. Yes. I'm sorry, y'all. I'm looking for the right slide. Okay. We are now about to begin our roundtable discussions. This will be happening with topics that are on the screen. We're going to be doing three sessions. each of it will be 15 minutes of discussion.

[37:26](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=2246) Once each round ends, feel free to move to a different table in a new subject area or stay at the same table to continue your engaging discussion. oh okay yeah okay yeah

[38:09](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=2289) yeah all right is that it we're supposed to be like a 15. okay all right Okay. City staff, please find a table to sit and talk to youth.

[38:42](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=2322) Okay.

[39:15](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo?t=2355) Two, two, two. That's it. Okay, there we go.

Sources and methods: [how we get and count this data](/about#methods) · [report an error](/about#corrections)

---
Source: https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/XBWnxNv0xqo · Chicago Politics, an independent tracker of the Chicago City Council. Guide for agents: https://www.chicagopolitics.org/llms.txt