A group of Chicago lawmakers have proposed a $1.25 package delivery fee as they battle the mayor over his controversial budget plan – just months after the city dropped nearly $640 million on migrants.
With the 2026 spending plan’s December 31 deadline rapidly approaching, Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson has been at odds with the sanctuary city’s moderate and conservative council members.
Chicago is facing a roughly $1.15 billion projected shortfall for the upcoming year. In response to the staggering deficit, Johnson proposed a $16.6 billion budget to close the shortfall.
But a significant aspect of his plan – a proposed $21 monthly tax per employee for companies with 100 or more workers – was struck down by the Finance Committee last month over concerns that it would drive corporations out of the city.
For a budget to pass, a majority of Chicago’s 50-person council must vote in favor.
Later this week, a small group of council members attempted to solidify an alternative budget, which does not include a corporate head tax, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
In response to Johnson’s denied $21 employee head tax, council member Alderman Gilbert Villegas proposed an initiative that would potentially charge residents $1.25 for every package delivered.
Other local officials, including Finance Chair Alderman Scott Waguespack and Alderman Matt O’Shea, have joined Villegas in crafting a proposal different from Johnson’s.
Chicago city council member Alderman Gilbert Villegas proposed the $1.25 fee to have packages delivered
The fee on delivered packages may be included in the financially-suffering city’s 2026 budget (file photo: A UPS delivery in Chicago)
The mayor’s office has rejected the $1.25 charge, claiming that it would need state approval to implement. But Waguespack has maintained that it does not, as per ABC 7.
Along with the ground-delivery fee, the group has suggested nearly doubling the city’s garbage collection fee, which has been $9.50 per month since it was implemented in 2015.
The fee would be hiked up to $20 per month, but senior citizens would not have to pay, according to the draft alternative budget.
But even with this drastic garbage fee increase, it would cover only 55 percent of the city’s total garbage collection costs, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
The alternative budget is still expected to include Johnson’s proposed tax increase on cloud computing and equipment leases, but at a lesser rate than the 15 percent the mayor wants.
Johnson’s proposal would require $449 million in loans to cover everyday operations, costing taxpayers more than $50 million in interest for those bonds.
‘If the mayor’s budget proposal is passed, we will most certainly have a downgrade, which will make it harder in the years to come, laying more debt on our children to have to repay,’ O’Shea told the Chicago Sun-Times.
These budget woes come after Johnson defended spending taxpayers’ money on supporting the more than 50,000 migrants flooding the city since 2022.
From September 2022 to February, Chicago has paid about $638.7 million in vendor contracts to support the city’s migrant residents, according to ABC 7.
Much of the migrant influx came when Texas transported tens of thousands of asylum seekers to sanctuary cities, including Chicago.
Tens of thousands of migrants have flocked to Chicago since 2022 (pictured: Migrants at a religious gathering outside of a Chicago shelter in 2024)
Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson has defended the city’s spending on migrants
During a March interrogation by the House Oversight Committee in Washington DC, Johnson had admitted that supporting illegal aliens had cost the city about one percent of its budget since 2022.
ABC 7 reported that one percent of the budget equates to $625 million, which is lower than what vendor records showed.
About $850,000 in taxes had also been spent on moving immigrants out of the city.
‘You’re putting the interest of illegal immigrants above the interest of taxpayers in Chicago,’ Illinois Republican Representative Darin LaHood told Johnson at the March meeting.
As a result of his handling of the city’s migrant crisis, Johnson has been at odds with Donald Trump and his administration.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched Operation Midway Blitz in September, vowing to target migrants with criminal records who flocked to Illinois because of its sanctuary policies.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Johnson for comment.