Why should government officials feel any pain of the economic whirlwind they have wrought?

Risking a preelection backlash, City Clerk Anna Valencia and City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin said Friday they will accept the 20.5% raises — to $161,016 — that Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s 2023 budget includes for those two jobs.

Seventeen of Chicago’s 50 City Council members have declined a 9.62% raise, tied to inflation, that would boost the maximum annual salary for an alderperson to $142,772.

 

Some alderpersons may fear how it might look to the voters many will face in the election Feb. 28 if they accept the raises.

 

Conyears-Ervin apparently has no such fears — though she said she is “very sensitive to inflation. We all feel it.”