{"id":1000062,"date":"2026-08-14T10:33:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T10:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1000062\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T10:33:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T10:33:15","slug":"chicago-will-make-full-advance-260m-pension-payment-mayor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1000062\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago will make full advance $260M pension payment: mayor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chicago will move ahead with its full $260 million supplemental pension payment<\/a>, Mayor Brandon Johnson promised the city\u2019s investors Thursday.<\/p>\n

Johnson pledged to make the payment \u2014\u00a0aimed at chipping away at the city\u2019s towering unfunded pension liabilities \u2014 during the Chicago Investor Conference. But as he argued City Hall \u201ccannot simply cut our way out\u201d of its fiscal woes, he did not reveal what new taxes or fees he will propose to balance the city\u2019s next budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me say that one more time: I want to reassure this audience that the city will make the second budgeted supplemental pension payment this year,\u201d he told the investor crowd. \u201cBecause of property tax delays from the county, it\u2019s a question of when, not if.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pledge adds another, and possibly final, chapter to the saga of the $260 million payment, which has become a key source of contention<\/a> between Johnson and the City Council.<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s initial budget proposal<\/a> last October recommended a smaller $121 million payment, but aldermen argued<\/a> that amount was insufficient for the city\u2019s troubled pension funds and warned that the smaller sum could trigger a credit downgrade. Johnson opponents ultimately passed a budget against the mayor\u2019s wishes that included the full payment.<\/p>\n

Johnson announced in January that his administration had made only half the payment, while promising to pay the remaining $130 million later in the year.<\/p>\n

The move led aldermen to question whether the mayor would skirt the budget they had passed. Ald. Samantha Nugent, 39th, even pushed for a referendum asking city voters whether Chicago should make its pension contributions in the first quarter of every year, though that proposal has since stalled.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Thursday, Nugent said the mayor fought the aldermanic effort to include the advance pension payment in the budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking the payment seven months late isn\u2019t a celebration \u2014 it\u2019s a reminder that it took sustained pressure from our coalition to move him to action,\u201d Nugent said. \u201cThat\u2019s not leadership. It\u2019s catch-up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month, top city budget officials told aldermen they were analyzing when and how much they could pay the remaining sum amid a delay in property tax payments to the city from Cook County. The payments are handled by Treasurer Maria Pappas\u2019 office.<\/p>\n

With Thursday\u2019s announcement, Johnson aimed to put the question to rest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re able to do all this because we had the vision, but we also had the right elements: responsible fiscal stewardship, long-term financial planning and a wealth of talented and dedicated public servants to carry out both,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Brendan White, the city\u2019s acting chief financial officer, said the city split the advance payment first made by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot\u2019s administration because the money now comes from the city\u2019s normal operating budget. It had previously been paid using cash on hand at the start of each year, he said.<\/p>\n

The advance payments \u201ccan really bend the curve\u201d for the city\u2019s pension funds and stave off \u201ccatastrophic\u201d damage in the event of an economic downturn, White said. He claimed that $1 spent today is worth $3 in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always budgeted for this,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re continuing to stick to financial best practices and do whatever it takes to secure the long-term financial strength of the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s administration took the rare step<\/a> of not inviting journalists to last year\u2019s annual conference, but allowed members of the press to attend the mayor\u2019s speech this year.<\/p>\n

As he spoke late Thursday afternoon, Johnson did not signal what he might propose when he presents the city\u2019s next budget in October. He again championed his efforts to add or raise taxes on cloud computing software, social media companies and sports gambling.<\/p>\n

The policies, several of which face legal challenges, show what works, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cStructural, progressive revenues that help ensure the benefits of growth are shared with working people,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause when our local governments have more to invest in our residents, our businesses benefit, our neighborhoods benefit and our entire economy grows stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chicago will move ahead with its full $260 million supplemental pension payment, Mayor Brandon Johnson promised the city\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1000063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[400474,960,5386,1818,36234,5678,400475],"class_list":["post-1000062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-advance-payment","tag-chicago","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-mayor-brandon-johnson","tag-pension","tag-supplemental-payment"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117093414333123707","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1000062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1000063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1000062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1000062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1000062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}