before being eliminated<\/a> by Mayor Rahm Emanuel.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s an option, it\u2019s an option,\u201d Johnson said about bringing the tax back in some form.<\/p>\n
As he campaigned, Johnson proposed reinstating the monthly $4-per-employee head tax on large companies in place from 1973 to 2014. Pressed on why he hasn\u2019t sought such a levy in his first two years in office, Johnson rattled off a list of campaign promises kept.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of things that I said I was going to do, and I\u2019ve done it. There will be no exception in this regard,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is the perfect time for us now to look at progressive means so that we can continue to demonstrate the positive trend here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson\u2019s calls for \u201cprogressive revenue\u201d \u2014 a common, but often unspecific refrain from the mayor \u2014 comes as many of the options his administration might otherwise rely on to drive up revenue look politically tenuous.<\/p>\n
The mayor pledged last week to not propose a property tax hike after his chief financial officer, Jill Jaworski, called such a hike \u201clikely.\u201d He has called for the city to maintain a 1% grocery tax of its own as the state\u2019s version of the tax expires, though he has not pushed the tax to a vote in the face of broad aldermanic pushback.<\/p>\n
As he takes on next year\u2019s extra-challenging budget, Johnson has assembled a \u201cfiscal sustainability working group\u201d team that includes leaders of corporations, unions and civic groups alongside City Council members.<\/p>\n
The Institute for Public Good, a progressive think tank, recently proposed a similar new \u201ccorporate excise tax.\u201d The tax would charge 5% of the cost of payroll for employees that earn more than $200,000 at companies with more than $8 million in payroll.<\/p>\n
Head taxes are a rare \u201chome rule\u201d levy, meaning the city would not need state approval to issue one. Johnson\u2019s efforts to win support in Springfield for other new taxes has so far largely failed.<\/p>\n
Progressive groups such as the Chicago Teachers Union have praised the head tax idea, but critics argue it provides a disincentive for companies to hire more employees.<\/p>\n
Johnson contended a head tax is not a job killer. Instead, violence is the \u201cnumber one issue\u201d that corporate leaders bring up, he said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The mayor\u2019s administration is also looking at a \u201cpayment in lieu of taxes\u201d program, he added. He has in the past pointed to wealthy universities that operate in and around the city, such as the University of Chicago or Northwestern University, as potential entities the city could seek such an agreement with.<\/p>\n
Later, Johnson said he is also eyeing a tax on digital advertisements. He worked on a similar tax in Maryland years ago, and \u201cpeople have made billions of dollars from the digital industry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Johnson repeatedly highlighted a through-line in his tax proposals: They would target the rich. Over 127,000 millionaires and at least 25 billionaires live in Chicago, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a reason for us to be able to tap into those individuals and entities with means so that we can continue to see the positive trend of violence going down in the city of Chicago,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s to all of our benefit to ensure that we\u2019re doing everything in our power to maintain the investment that we put forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if he fears taxes that target rich people will push Chicago\u2019s wealthiest residents out of the city and its tax base, the mayor said the city\u2019s millionaire population is growing fast.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis notion somehow that we\u2019re scaring millionaires away, it\u2019s just the opposite,\u201d he said. \u201cThe ultimate goal is to grow the economy. This is not about billionaires versus everyone else. This is about the city of Chicago coming together collectively.\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally Published: July 29, 2025 at 12:01 PM CDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday pointed to a handful of tax-the-rich options he might consider to balance Chicago\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":104363,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,5404,5386,1818,1370,50,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-104362","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-cook-county","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-illinois","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-politics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114941311312716529","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104362","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=104362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}