By Townhall Chicago News Staff
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has proposed a city budget that raises several taxes, including a revived corporate head tax, without identifying spending cuts in the roughly 500-page document.
The budget proposal lands against a backdrop of pension costs that already consume a large share of the city’s property tax revenue, and it arrives as 29 City Council members have signed a letter opposing the head tax, according to one alderman quoted on a Chicago radio broadcast.
The plan includes a $25-per-employee monthly head tax on companies with 125 or more workers, an increase in the lease transaction tax from 15% to 20%, a doubling of the sports betting tax from 10% to 20%, and a new 15-cent tax on single-item delivery orders. Jeannie Ives, a former Illinois state representative who co-hosts the AM 560 program, said the budget totals about $4 billion more than the city’s 2019 budget, citing figures from the Illinois Policy Institute.
“There is no reason to feel sorry for corporations,” Johnson said in a clip aired on the broadcast. “They are doing just fine. Large corporations can and should contribute more to the city, whose people, infrastructure and neighborhoods make their success possible.”
Chicago Alderman Bill Conway said the head tax proposal would not survive a council vote. “It was disingenuous for the mayor to put the head tax into the budget,” Conway said. “Twenty-nine of us signed that letter. Clearly that part of his is dead on arrival.”
Ives said the city’s pension systems carry about $38 billion in obligations. A fiscal analyst identified on the broadcast as Sheila Weinberg, founder of the nonprofit Truth in Accounting, said pension payments consume roughly 80% of the city’s property tax revenue, or nearly $3 billion a year, about 20% of the general revenue fund. The broadcast’s own speaker records flagged that attribution as unconfirmed.
Ives also cited a Chicago Tribune piece by Stuart Lawrence reporting that Chicago’s unemployment rate reached 5.9% in August, which she said was the highest among the 25 largest U.S. cities.
A caller identified as Roger, from Chicago’s South Side, criticized the city’s finances during the broadcast. “We’re borrowing to make payroll,” he said. “There’s zero accountability here.”
The budget proposal is pending before the City Council. Alderman Ray Lopez has said he is reviewing the full document and has not found any proposed spending cuts. A separate state proposal for a 15-cent-per-delivery tax failed to advance in the Illinois House earlier this year, according to the broadcast.
