Chicago’s Incoming Mayor Faces Revenue Reckoning

Chicago Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot will soon have to face some harsh economic realities. Ushered into office facing mountainous long-term debt, a ballooning structural deficit, and woefully underfunded retirement systems, the political novice may have little choice but to quickly raise taxes to bolster the country’s third-largest city.

But finding new revenue will prove tricky given a climate of political hostility to regressive tax structures and constitutional limitations on home rule units of government to dream up new revenue plans.

LIghtfoot, who won a landslide victory April 2 and is scheduled to take over as Chicago’s chief executive May 20, will ...