Priorities
Address Chicago’s Financial Crisis
To address Chicago’s financial crisis, Susana Mendoza will stabilize the city’s budget on Day 1 by curbing reckless spending, ending the practice of passing unpayable bills onto residents, and trimming administrative waste through Taxpayer Relief through Innovative Management (TRIM).
Leveraging her proven track record of securing 12 credit rating upgrades as Illinois Comptroller, she will restore fiscal discipline, lower borrowing costs for city infrastructure, and prepay pension obligations with surplus revenues to secure lasting financial stability without missing debt payments.
At the same time, Susana will expand Chicago’s tax base through pro-growth policies that attract new businesses, jobs, and residents, easing the heavy property tax burden currently falling on working families.
To ensure long-term community reinvestment, she will immediately end the abuse of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) dollars as budget “slush funds” and redirect nearly $4 billion back toward building schools, housing, parks, medical districts, and retail in working-class neighborhoods.
The Public Safety Crisis
To address Chicago’s public safety crisis, Susana Mendoza will make safety a core responsibility of City Hall, ensuring every neighborhood across the city—without playing favorites—actually feels and is safer.
She will fully back first responders by filling police vacancies, boosting officer morale, and using AI-assisted administrative tools to get officers off desk duty and back on the streets. Her administration will also restore proven, life-saving technologies like ShotSpotter and put police officers back on trains and platforms to restore cleanliness, order, and safety to public transit.
Susana’s plan establishes a clear moral compass that puts victims first and holds violent offenders accountable, declaring an end to excuses for violent crime while maintaining a common-sense balance that supports second chances without permitting repeated offenses.
To protect communities, she will actively push to amend the SAFE-T Act to eliminate electronic monitoring eligibility for individuals accused of murder, attempted murder, or predatory sexual assault.
By combining innovative technology, strong police backing, and firm accountability, she will rebuild trust between law enforcement and the neighborhoods they serve.
Address Chicago’s Crisis of Confidence
To end the “Blizzard of Incompetence” and restore confidence in City Hall, Susana Mendoza will leverage her unique trifecta of leadership experience—six terms in the Illinois House, two terms as Chicago City Clerk, and a decade managing state finances as Comptroller—to deliver immediate, competent governance.
She will restore trust by surrounding herself with top-tier talent, streamlining city operations, and navigating both Springfield and the City Council to get big things done. Central to this turnaround is bringing back Chicago’s official bird—the construction crane—by jumpstarting economic development, revitalizing neighborhoods, and showing Chicagoans transparent, measurable progress.
Susana’s plan will turn Chicago back into a city of builders through “White Glove” permitting reform, a public dashboard tracking city approval times against peer cities, and a “Start and Stay” approach that stops nickel-and-diming small businesses with fees.
Her administration will aggressively build workforce, transit-oriented, and adaptive-reuse housing, while making smart, targeted investments to eliminate grocery, pharmacy, and maternity deserts and replace hazardous lead water pipes.
By cutting red tape, bringing back departed businesses, and attracting future-focused industries like Quantum computing, Susana will reignite growth, create good jobs, and rebuild lasting faith in Chicago’s future.
