The city budget passed

No curbside recycling or 50 extra cops, but everything else is there on the tax side (except for 1/3 of the original property tax increase and half the bottled water tax). The mayor is a bit cranky:

He called the aldermen who had the courage to support him "weight lifters" for their willingness to do the political "heavy lifting." And he ridiculed those who had the hypocrisy to vote "yes" on a budget that included a $104,101-a-year aldermanic salary and a $40,000 hike in the annual aldermanic expense allowance and "no" on the property tax increase needed to finance it.

...

"It's heavy lifting. They don't want to get blamed for it. They want their salary increases. They want this. They want that. But, [they also want to] go home and tell their people, 'I voted against this,'....Everybody's running for something....They're all positioning themselves," Daley said.

"You have to make a decision. It's a tough decision. Do you think I want to raise taxes?...[But], no one wanted a layoff. When you talked about layoffs, I don't think you got five votes...What about shutting hours down in the libraries? Oh, we can't do that. Why not? You want to privatize all Streets and San? Oh, we can't. No one wanted to make the tough decisions. But, it was the easy decision to vote 'no.' "

They get an additional $40,000 a year in expenses? Jeepers, that's not cool. Still, that's only $2 million extra compared to the tax increases of $276.5 million.

Alderman Joe Moore is my new hero on the city council:

Ald. Joe Moore (49th) was a consistent "no" across the board, citing the "constant drumbeat of criminal indictments and convictions" at Daley's City Hall.

"How many bottles of water must be sold to pay for the $12 million fund created to compensate victims of the city's rigged hiring system?....How many sewer and water fees must be paid to cover the cost of fraudulent minority contracts awarded to politically connected, white-owned businesses? How many red-light runners must be caught on camera to make up for the $40 million-a-year that was spent for do-nothing Hired Trucks," Moore said, during a debate that dragged on for nearly two hours.

I'll close with my usual refrain that people are no doubt tired of reading:

The property tax increase to build and maintain libraries has become the flashpoint for a taxpayer rebellion made worse by County Board President Todd Stroger's $880 million tax hike request.

Taxpayer rebellion? Not quite. When we see some turnover in the city council after an election focused on taxes, I'll believe it. Until then, we're not exactly in the middle of the Boston Tea Party.