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Good morning, Chicago.

Aldermen officially threw their budget cards on the table yesterday by introducing their own 2026 package to the City Council , the clearest sign yet they believe they don’t need Mayor Brandon Johnson to solve the current impasse on next year’s spending plan.

The high-stakes game of chicken between the freshman mayor and his council antagonists — including some of his own committee leaders — now moves from the dueling news conferences of the past weeks into the actual legislative process. In the increasingly likely event they can’t reach a widely acceptable compromise, each side will try to build a proposal that can pass the council before the end of the year to avert a government shutdown.

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