Across the country, America’s mental health system is buckling under the weight of growing need and shrinking support. A new national poll from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and Ipsos captures what many Chicagoans already know firsthand: People are overwhelmed, and our services are strained. Meanwhile, the much-needed traditional sources of federal funding that support health care and housing are few and far between. The absence of reliable partnerships at the national level underscores the need for local unity and robust community support.
Here in Chicago, federal cuts that slash funding for supportive housing, early intervention and Medicaid are direct affronts to mental health. This dismantling of basic resources is in stark contrast to what Americans actually want from their leaders. For instance, nearly 3 in 4 Americans oppose cuts to mental health programs, suicide prevention and the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Our neighbors are deeply worried about what these cuts mean for their communities: diminished services and fewer supports for veterans, students and families navigating mental illnesses.
While Washington stalls or retreats, Chicago’s leaders have an opportunity to meet the moment with collaboration and support. After all, behind these numbers are human stories. Close to 1 in 5 Americans rate their own mental health as poor. Stress levels are soaring. Uncertainty about the future, the rising cost of living, financial strain, caregiving pressures and health concerns are taking a toll on families across the country, including in our very own neighborhoods.
If Congress won’t protect essential resources, then state and local leadership must collaborate and support a network of health care that includes mental health services. This means investing in community behavioral health clinics, expanding access to affordable and supportive housing, clarifying our crisis response systems, and ensuring that families can find timely, high-quality care without navigating a maze of underfunded services.
This is not just a policy issue. It is a public safety issue, an economic stability issue and a moral imperative. Our communities overwhelmingly support mental health investments. They know that when people receive the care they need, our communities are safer, stronger and more resilient.
Fund mental health care. Protect supportive housing. Strengthen our crisis response system with dignity and efficiency. Invest in prevention and long-term solutions for these chronic conditions.
The data is clear. The public is ready. The need is urgent.
— Matt Davison, CEO, NAMI Chicago
State’s energy challenge
The Dec. 17 article “Electricity shortages, higher bills on horizon” affirms a concern the solar and clean energy industries have been warning of for years and showcases why Illinois families and businesses dealt with outrageously high energy prices this summer.
The subject of the article, the Resource Adequacy Study recently released by the Illinois Commerce Commission, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the Illinois Power Agency, makes it clear there are unprecedented levels of energy demand — driven by data centers, transportation and industrial expansion — and that Illinois does not have enough energy supply to meet that historic demand. Until we build more supply to meet the record levels of demand, prices will remain high or could climb even higher. And solar and storage are the most affordable and fastest technologies to deploy to the grid.
A solar farm near Waverly, Illinois, south of Springfield, on July 31, 2024. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
While the resource adequacy concern deserves attention and headlines, so does Illinois leadership. Thanks to Gov. JB Pritzker and the Illinois General Assembly — led by Sen. Steve Stadelman, Rep. Robyn Gabel, Sen. Bill Cunningham, Rep. Jay Hoffman, Rep. Marcus Evans Jr. and Rep. Ann Williams — the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability (CRGA) Act passed in October to place Illinois on a new path to avoid the worst-case scenario involving resource adequacy.
CRGA mandates the procurement of new energy storage by 2030. Through storage and other proven solutions, CRGA is a multidimensional approach to building and connecting more energy supply quickly and affordably, making better use of the energy already connected to the grid, and ensuring the state has a better line of sight into the future of its energy demand and supply.
Another important insight from the study is that this challenge is not unique to Illinois. Nearly every state in the nation is grappling with the same resource adequacy problem. What makes Illinois unique is that it is the first state to take bold, comprehensive steps to change course and address the supply challenge head-on.
The study is a wake-up call for many. For Illinois, it’s a confirmation that passing CRGA was the right decision to ensure a reliable, affordable and clean energy future for all Illinoisans.
— Lesley McCain, executive director, Illinois Solar Energy & Storage Association
Grateful for governance
It took a while, but I knew Gov. JB Pritzker would sign legislation allowing doctors to help terminally ill people end their lives. Illinois becomes just the 11th state to allow medical aid in dying.
Pritzker said he was moved by supporters’ “dedication to standing up for freedom and choice at the end of life in the midst of personal heartbreak. Today, Illinois honors their strength and courage by enacting legislation that enables patients faced with debilitating terminal illnesses to make a decision, in consultation with a doctor, that helps them avoid unnecessary pain and suffering at the end of their lives.”
The “Right to die” law joins other sensible policy measures Illinois has enacted to make life better for all Illinoisans.
In 2011, Illinois became the 16th state to abolish the barbaric death penalty. In the 14 years since, just seven more states followed Illinois’ sensible lead. Two years later, Illinois became the 16th state to legalize same sex marriage. Had the Supreme Court not legalized it nationally, Illinois would likely still be an outlier in respecting every person’s marriage partner choice.
Illinois has always been at the forefront protecting a woman’s right to choose. So much so that many people from nearby anti-abortion rights states travel to Illinois for pregnancy care denied them by their home states.
Just recently, Illinois government pushed back hard against the federal law enforcement that is causing chaos and societal disruption on Chicago’s streets.
Illinois has problems. But overall, it is among the most decent, caring states for anyone to reside in. I’ve been privileged to enjoy humane Illinois governance now for 80 years.
— Walt Zlotow, Glen Ellyn
Chicago’s garbage fee
As I look over separate proposals for Chicago’s 2026 budget by the mayor and the City Council, I see many taxes that are going to be raised on Chicagoans. So why take a stand on the garbage fee?
Increases in the lease tax, expansion of the ride-share congestion zone and a higher cloud tax are all going to be passed on to hardworking Chicagoans. Mr. Mayor, stop your misguided stand on the garbage tax increase.
— Lee Berenbaum, Chicago
Inexplicable end to tax
The state will eliminate its 1% grocery tax on Jan. 1. Municipalities may continue to collect it in order to augment their budgets. For whatever reason, Chicago has chosen not to. This makes little sense.
We have long paid that tax, and continuing to do so would not be a new or unexpected expense, unlike any of the proposals being considered by the City Council and Mayor Brandon Johnson. The grocery tax revenue alone would not eliminate the budget deficit, but it would help provide a cushion.
It is true that a sales tax is regressive, but isn’t a small regressive tax preferable to cuts in services?
— Jeanne Martineau, Chicago
The fat in government
When I was 19 years old, I got a job downtown at a credit bureau. There were 11 jobs in the mailroom, and those jobs had been there forever. The company got bought out by TransUnion, which sent an efficiency expert to look at the business. He determined that the mailroom work could be done by five people, and six were laid off. I was one of the five left, and we were sure we couldn’t get the work done. We did, and nobody died trying.
I’ve lived in Chicago all my life and find it hard to believe there’s zero fat in city government. A place to start may be the Police Department. The Los Angeles Police Department has about 3,000 fewer sworn officers than the Chicago Police Department, but LA has lower crime rates.
Maybe we can import someone from there to implement greater efficiencies here.
— Gene Sweet, Chicago
Parking meter deal
Each time I read an article about Chicago’s never-ending budget crisis, I’m drawn to one of the worst deals made by any mayor in any major American city: Richard M. Daley’s 2008 giveaway of the city’s parking meters to a consortium headed by Morgan Stanley.
For just over $1 billion, the group gained near total control of street parking for 75 years. Even more painful, by 2019, Chicago Parking Meters LLC had made back its initial $1.15 billion investment plus $500 million in profit. It doesn’t take a genius to guesstimate that CPM will earn billions more before the contract expires in 2084.
Has the agreement been litigated? Yes. It has been challenged multiple times, each time unsuccessfully. Let’s try another approach.
I urge Mayor Brandon Johnson to assemble a team to approach CPM and its principals — Morgan Stanley, Allianz Capital Partners and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority — and discuss possible modifications to the contract. Perhaps the investors can be persuaded that the existing agreement fails to serve their long-term interests or those of Chicago.
— John Mjoseth, Chicago
Editorial shows favor
The Dec. 9 editorial regarding Orland Park adopts the village’s storyline while doing little of the homework readers should expect from an editorial board (“Orland Park has become a village held hostage by a political grudge”).
To be clear, a Cook County court’s recent ruling on the village’s lawsuit against me came after the editorial, so I am not suggesting the board could have quoted that order on Dec. 9. Still, the editorial relies on assumptions and press statements rather than the public record. The board did not attend hearings, review filings or verify the village’s most serious accusations before presenting them to readers as settled fact.
The editorial acknowledges that it is “not clear” which documents I supposedly posted, yet proceeds to treat the village’s claim that I released “sensitive internal documents” as credible. I did not release any village documents or confidential information. The order was only to redact nine bullets and three sentences out of 136 pages. Those allegations have been repeated in news releases, but repetition does not make them true.
The editorial board also places a heavy weight on an extremely limited August temporary restraining order while conceding it does not know whether my posts caused any concrete harm. Temporary orders are issued quickly, without full briefing or evidentiary hearings, and are not findings of fact. Editorial boards should know the difference — especially when constitutional speech rights are implicated.
The broader context matters. The village’s lawsuit seeks not just document removal but to silence a political critic through injunctions, retractions and damages — all funded by taxpayers. That framing is absent from the editorial, which instead casts the dispute as little more than “sour grapes” from a former officeholder.
Since the editorial ran, the case has advanced in a way that underscores why caution and diligence were warranted. In a written order filed Dec. 12, Judge Caroline Kate Moreland rejected the village’s requests for an injunction and retraction and ruled that its attempt to restrict my speech was an unconstitutional prior restraint. One claim remains, and the village has already put on its case; I have not yet presented mine.
The Tribune Editorial Board rightly prides itself on defending the First Amendment. That commitment should not depend on whether the speaker is a newsroom or a private citizen criticizing government. When later developments reveal that an official narrative was incomplete or misleading, the record deserves correction.
— Keith Pekau, former mayor, Orland Park
Property assessments
I agree with the comments by Mike Cello in his Sunday letter (“Mayor’s tax plans”) but for a slightly different reason. Illinois law requires that all real property in Illinois be assessed at one-third of market value. Cook County assesses residential properties at 10% of market value and commercial properties at 25% of market value. Neither percentage equals one-third. So, Illinois applies an equalization factor before calculating the tax amounts.
For 2024, the equalization factor was 3.0355, and that increases all assessments. The equalization factor works for residential properties and brings the assessments up to one-third of market. However, it impacts commercial properties differently. If a residence and a commercial property each have a market value of $100,000, the Cook County assessment for the residence would be $10,000, and for the commercial parcel, it would be $25,000. When you multiply those amounts by three, the residence has an equalized value of $30,000 (about one-third of market), but the commercial parcel has an equalized value of $75,000 (three-fourths of market). To level out the tax hit, the assessor would need to find the market value of the commercial parcel to be $50,000. When you multiply that amount by 25% and then by three, you arrive at an equalized value of $37,500, closer to one-third of the true market value of $100,000.
Market valuation shenanigans most likely happen but probably do not result in 50% market value reductions for all commercial parcels. However, if every parcel were simply assessed at one-third of market value, no equalization factor would enter the picture. Doing that would result in commercial parcels having lower assessments in Cook County, which would necessitate increasing the tax rates.
The various taxing bodies still need the same funding. Residential properties would end up paying much more than they currently do as commercial parcels would no longer be subsidizing residential taxes. Perhaps that is why Cook County perpetuates the 10% and 25% assessment levels.
To say that commercial properties do not pay their fair share of taxes is disingenuous.
— Karen Meehan, Chicago
Note to readers: We’d like to know your hopes for the new year. Please send us a letter, of no more than 400 words, to letters@chicagotribune.com by Sunday, Dec. 28. Include your full name and city/town.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/19/letters-121925-illinois-chicago-mental-health/
