| Budgets and bailouts are the topic of the moment. In Springfield, the 11th-hour transit bill sucked up all kinds of media oxygen and in Chicago, debate continues about Brandon Johnson's yet-to-be-passed budget proposal. Johnson's budget was developed with help from private-sector consultants, specifically the accounting firm of Ernst & Young, or EY, as they now are known. Sunday, the editorial board argued that City Council should talk to the experts at EY to discern if any of their ideas for efficiencies, or other ways to cut the city's bloated budget, were somehow missed or obscured in the process. The taxpayers are the client, we remind aldermen, and they have a duty to explore further. Back to the transit bill: Is what passed in Springfield the right way forward on this crucial matter? In an editorial that should get you up to speed on the whole thing, the editorial board argues that Gov JB Pritzker's invention produced a far superior bill, but we see no need for the planned 0.25 sales tax increase in Chicago and Cook County. Why not? We explain below. Monday, we write about Delta Airlines and the long-running fracas over uniforms that supposedly made flight attendants sick. An appeals court just batted that notion down once and for all and we lament the proliferation of class-action lawsuits that are increasingly costly to defend. Also Sunday our architecture columnist Edward Keegan took a trip to one of the Midwest's most interesting locations: Columbus, Indiana. What did he find in that city filled with fascinating buildings? See below (and maybe take a trip yourself). We have another Opinion piece that might surprise you, too: An argument as to why Democrats should get behind opening the federal government that does not come from the usual right-wing sources. Add in a look at real worries of food banks at the current moment, the ongoing need for yet more conversation around pensions and the latest from our veteran Washington, D.C. columnist Clarence Page and you have a whole lot to read here to start your Monday morning. Hope November goes well for you! — Chris Jones, editorial page editor Submit an op-ed | Submit a letter to the editor | Meet the Tribune Editorial Board | Subscribe to this newsletter | 
