CHICAGO (WLS) — Mayor Brandon Johnson offered a significant change to his controversial corporate head tax on Monday to try and secure the additional votes that would be needed to pass his budget plan.

But it may backfire on him as Chicago City Council opponents dig in and prepare to present their alternative budget as soon as Wednesday.

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The mayor’s new proposal would tax Chicago companies with more than 500 employees at $33 per employee per month. The original plan impacted companies with more than 100 employees, charging $21 per employee per month.

The mayor says his community safety surcharge would only impact about 175 of the largest corporations in the city.

“The community safety surcharge would account for roughly .0008% of their annual revenue. That’s less than 1,000th of a percent,” Johnson said.

And while the new plan might protect small to mid-size companies from the pain, opponents say, philosophically, it is bad for business, and it will not change their minds.

Ald. Pat Dowell, the influential chair of the finance committee, remains staunchly opposed.

“I think this the current proposal is making a bad policy even worse,” Dowell said.

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Ald. Brendan Reilly represents the city’s 42nd Ward.

“All these small inputs, like a head tax determine whether or not a big employer moves to a city like Chicago, and this is simply another symbol of why you shouldn’t come here. And I think it’s a big, big mistake,” Reilly said.

But the mayor is counting on big companies being willing to pay the price and stay in Chicago even if they oppose the head tax.

“These huge corporations are not going to make a financial decision based upon what essentially could be a rounding error,” Johnson said.

But it is the decisions of a majority of council members that the mayor needs to focus on first, with 27 now supporting an alternative budget.

“If it’s prepared and ready to go tomorrow, we’ll introduce it tomorrow, and if not, we’ll introduce it later,” said 39th Ward Ald. Samantha Nugent.

The mayor seems confident that his plan will get passed.

“Now, in terms of when we actually put it up on the board, we’ll talk with our IGA team. I’m ready to go now, right? I mean that I believe that the budget that I presented was ready to go,” Johnson said.

So, it is possible that the alderpersons or even the mayor could introduce a budget plan Wednesday, though that seems unlikely at this point. What it will come down to is which side believes they have the 26 votes needed to pass the budget, which has to be done by the end of the year.

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