In recent years, he and the council have tangled over capital spending and borrowing, especially the timing of a new Midtown Police Station being built this year, a new fire station for the Southwest Side, the public market and roads. The mayor has pushed for the market while the council moved up the timing of the police and fire stations.

As a result, the $360.5 million capital budget and $170.4 million in authorized borrowing for 2017 are the most in city history. The mayor had proposed a $329.7 million budget using $152.3 million in borrowing for the current year, but the council increased those sums.

“The issue with most of these activities is not, ‘Is this needed? Is it a good idea?’ ” Soglin said. “But we simply can’t do so much all at once.”

The mayor’s proposals for spending and borrowing for 2018 are slightly less than his offerings for the 2017 budget.

New facilities planned

The biggest new item establishing a toehold in the capital budget, even though it wouldn’t be built until 2023, is the $17.1 million, 40,000-square-foot “Reindahl Imagination Center,” which would combine a new library and other city services in a new way for underserved neighborhoods on the Far East Side.