Garcia: Maybe Emanuel And Rauner Should Fix Budget Over A Bottle Of Wine
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Mayoral challenger Jesus "Chuy" Garcia said Mayor Rahm Emanuel needs to answer tough questions about how he plans to handle the city's financial woes.
The Emanuel campaign has chided for Garcia for not providing specifics on how he'd lower the city's pension debt, or how he'd pay for his pledge to hire 1,000 new police officers.
"The mayor is the last one, the last person that can criticize anyone else. Why? Because Chicago appears to be in a financial freefall that happened on his watch. The downgrading by Moody's of the city's finances is a verdict on his poor stewardship of the city's finances," Garcia said during a campaign stop at a senior housing center on the North Side.
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Garcia suggested the mayor has not answered questions about his specific plans for city finances, either.
He also said, if Emanuel is complaining about the devastating effect of Gov. Bruce Rauner's proposed budget, the mayor ought to do something about it, taking a dig at the now infamous photo of Emanuel and Rauner carrying bottles of wine available only through a six-figure wine club while vacationing together in Montana.
"The mayor should go to Springfield and sit with Rauner, maybe open up one of those expensive bottles, and figure out how he's going to really fight for the people of Chicago, when his buddy is the person that is bringing on the bad news," Garcia said.
He said he would release his own financial plan soon.
Emanuel said he has talked with Governor Bruce Rauner repeatedly. The mayor gathered city department heads and social service providers at a firehouse to blast Rauner's budget
"Do I look like a silent person?" Emanuel asked reporters. "I have been very clear to all the leaders as well as to the governor that this budget will not stand. It is wrong. It is wrong for Chicago and I believe it is wrong for Illinois."
Emanuel says the budget would decimate day care and after school programs.
