The City Council approved Mayor Brandon Johnson’s cost-cutting effort to refinance $1.5 billion in debt Tuesday, despite criticism from aldermen who said the maneuver wouldn’t deliver the windfall the administration claims. The bid to take advantage of lower interest rates passed in a 35-to-12 vote. City finance leaders estimate the move will save Chicago $90 million this year and another $35 million next year without loading the city up with additional debt. “We know if we do a refinancing deal, we are going to save money. And we’ve been pretty conservative in our estimates,” Chief Financial Officer Jill Jaworski said. But while Johnson’s team celebrated the refinancing plan’s passage, the mayor surely expected aldermanic approval would have come even earlier. The mayor sought to pass the plan two weeks ago, a timeline set to clear the way for Jaworski to bring it to market before the November election. However, when the issue came to the council in early October, opponents of the mayor used a parliamentary maneuver to delay its consideration. Later in that same meeting, Ald. Anthony Beale, 9th, another typical Johnson foe, used another tactic to sideline a host of standard, minor measures the mayor had introduced. Beale carried out the holdup scheme to protest Johnson’s September decision to terminate the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system, he said. Those outcroppings of the rocky relationship between many aldermen and the mayor dragged them all back to City Hall Tuesday, where they held yet another meeting largely aimed at getting Johnson’s legislation and the bond plan back on track. Ald. Brian Hopkins, 2nd, opposed Johnson’s refinancing plans, arguing that the savings might be vastly overestimated and that the plan could harm Chicago’s credit rating. But he thought the tactics that made Tuesday’s meeting necessary were “nonsense,” he added. “The council and the mayor’s relationship is very dynamic right now,” he said. “It’s very much in flux.” When the bond plan finally came up for a vote, Ald. Bill Conway, 34th, urged his colleagues “not to simply obstruct, for the sake of politics.” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson listens during a City Council meeting at City Hall on Oct. 22, 2024. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune) The refinancing faced some initial pushback earlier this month from aldermen concerned the proceeds might be used to help plug Chicago Public Schools’ budget deficit. In response, aldermen amended the ordinance to ensure the proceeds would not be used to cover any operating expenses. Ald. Raymond Lopez, 15th, who helped stall the plan at the last meeting, cited that same distrust Tuesday as he tried to rally his colleagues to vote against it. “I have been around this room long enough to have heard now three different administrations tell me, ‘Trust us, we know what we are doing. Trust us when we ask you to take on more debt,’” Lopez said. Finance Committee Chair Ald. Pat Dowell, 3rd, argued in turn that the refinancing is “responsible fiscal management.” “For everyone who asks what Chicago is doing to put its fiscal house in order, here you go,” she said. “This is what it looks like.” The refinancing — which will include general obligation and Sales Tax Securitization Corporation bonds — has been planned since last year, when Jaworski’s team counted on $70 million in refinancing savings to balance the 2024 budget. After the vote, Jaworski said that if the refinancing plan is found to not bring the city enough savings when it goes to market, her team will wait for more favorable conditions. “We are not selling bonds to sell bonds. We are doing this transaction slowly to save money,” she said.