Sounding like he’s testing the waters for a 2027 mayoral campaign, U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley said Wednesday it’s time for Chicago to make the “drastic changes” needed to solve its myriad financial crises without “socking it” to taxpayers.

In the short term, Quigley advocates dramatic cuts, employee layoffs and furlough days in an “austerity budget that focuses on the fundamentals” — and sets aside less needed services — as the only way out of a $1.12 billion budget shortfall.

“That’s painful, but the alternative is, `Which tax do you want?’” Quigley, an Illinois Democrat, told the Sun-Times. “We have to show the public we get their pain and that the solution isn’t every year to reflexively go back and [say], `How can we sock it to you again?’ because that affects working class Chicagoans mo

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