COVID-19 relief money is helping prop up Chicago’s 2022 budget. But with a sizable tax increase and an election year looming, what happens when that’s gone?

Faced with yawning pandemic-related holes in the city’s revenue, Lightfoot opted to use part of the $1.9 billion Chicago got from the feds to pay back a $465 million pandemic bank loan, while also increasing funding for programs favored by activists such as mental health services, affordable housing and anti-violence efforts.