Mayor Johnson sounds alarm about Chicago’s finances.
Mayor Johnson sounds alarm about Chicago’s finances.
00:43
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson sounded the alarm Tuesday about Chicago’s finances.
“We have reached a point of no return,” Mayor Johnson said Tuesday. “The systems that people rely upon — education, health care, housing, our transportation — they are woefully underfunded, and everyone knows that. Everyone knows what, you know, my commitment is to progressive revenue. I can’t do this by myself.”
The mayor’s statement came in response to a question about a pension bill signed into law by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker last week.
The law will increase retirement benefits for police and firefighters, adding more than $11 billion to Chicago’s long-term pension liability.
Johnson said the state needs new progressive revenue options, but he did not name any specific plans.
The city of Chicago has a massive $1.1 billion budget gap to fill for 2026. Mayor Johnson promising has promised not to once again pitch a property tax hike — which the City Council unanimously rejected for 2025 — but said last week he’s looking at creative ways to raise tax dollars.
The menu on that table appears to target Chicago’s ultra-rich. Johnson said he is looking for ways to extract more tax dollars from the 127,000 millionaires who now call Chicago home, as well as the 25 billionaires residing inside the city limits.
The mayor also said he’s weighing reinstating Chicago’s corporate head tax, and a new tax on social media advertising is also on the table.