Lightfoot seemed to back away from her proposal to extend the sales tax to high-end city services. She said that while the 2020 budget she'll propose in October will not include "mass layoffs," her administration believes city government can be made "a lot more efficient."

She said she strongly opposes the so-called LaSalle Street tax on financial transactions that some progressives are pushing, added a strong "no" to another progressive favorite, the head tax, indicated she’s quite serious about imposing some kind congestion tax on those who drive downtown, and repeated her call to cut taxes on the proposed Chicago casino lest it be stillborn.

The biggest news was on pensions, which arguably are the biggest driver of the city's financial woes, with costs of paying old pension debt set to rise almost $1 billion over the next three years.

Lightfoot said she intended yesterday's State of the City speech to be an open "call to action" statewide.

"There are cities and towns all over Illinois that are facing the same problems" as Chicago does, she said. And asking the General Assembly to do something about it during its fall veto session does not constitute "a Chicago bailout."

One proposed solution is to amend the Illinois Constitution to revamp the current pension clause, which the courts have ruled protects the 3 percent compounded annual increase in pension benefits many non-police/fire government workers receive even though inflation lately has been running around 1 percent a year.

Not only labor unions, but Gov. J.B. Pritzker opposes doing that, and Lightfoot—who in other settings has said workers should not have their benefits reduced—said today that "I'm not advocating for a constitutional amendment."

Instead, she said, Chicago's casino taxation issue needs to be resolved—"all of us will have to take less"—and efforts to merge Chicago's pension funds into also underfunded systems in suburban and downstate areas ought to continue even though Pritzker has opposed doing that.

But a few minutes later, Lightfoot said that even if such efforts succeed, the current COLA is "unsustainable." Asked if she'd like the constitution to be amended, Lightfoot replied, "I'd like to put as many options as possible on the table."

In response to another question, Lightfoot said she did not mean to imply that other pension efforts short of amending the constitution were useless, but that in today's economy, "3 percent compounded is a tough climb."

She did appear to rule out extending the pension payment ramp. Bond rating agencies have been "entirely negative" about again deferring city financial obligations, she said.

Somewhat surprisingly, Lightfoot threw some cold water on her idea to raise tens of millions of dollars by taxing high-end services. While she still likes the idea of asking state lawmakers to authorize the tax, "whether I can get any dance partners on that is an open question."

She didn't offer many details on her congestion tax. But she stressed the need to do something. "We don’t have a rush hour (downtown) anymore. We have a rush day," she put it.

The place to start is looking at hitting ride-hailing services, many of which use drivers from Wisconsin and Indiana that "pay us nothing," she said. Lightfoot did not indicate how far the city eventually might move in the direction of the system in place in London, in which every vehicle entering the center of the British capital is electronically tracked and taxed.

Lightfoot also said she wants to see more civilianization of clerical jobs that uniformed police now are handling, and argued in favor of assigning fewer police to special units and more to district patrols.

Lightfoot is to unveil her proposed budget on Oct. 23. Before then, she promised an unprecedented series of hearings to give the public its chance to speak. "I really want to hear from people," she said.

2:15 p.m. update: It looks like Lightfoot caught some heat since her comments went live. Her office now has issued what it calls a "clarifying" statement: "As the mayor has repeatedly made clear, she believes that our pension obligations are not optional. This administration is committed to finding ways to shore up the sustainability of our pension funds—including the COLA. We must secure the retirement of our working people by partnering with our allies from the state to identify progressive revenue streams. Mayor Lightfoot remains opposed to a constitutional amendment on pensions."

The statement does not assert Lightfoot was misquoted. So how can an “unsustainable” COLA be sustained? Good question.