{"id":419280,"date":"2025-12-02T10:33:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T10:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/419280\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T10:33:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T10:33:12","slug":"mayor-brandon-johnsons-team-rejects-ald-scott-waguespacks-alternatives-to-corporate-head-tax-in-city-of-chicago-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/419280\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor Brandon Johnson’s team rejects Ald. Scott Waguespack’s alternatives to corporate head tax in city of Chicago budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO (WLS) — Mayor Brandon Johnson’s controversial proposed 2026 budget has caused several Chicago City Council members to work overtime to come up with an alternative.<\/p>\n

“We’ve been working with a lot of experts in municipal finance who are looking at these things with us. Experience that we have, or I had, as the finance chair,” said 32nd Ward Ald. Scott Waguespack.<\/p>\n

ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24\/7. Click here to watch<\/a><\/p>\n

Waguespack is leading the charge against the mayor’s budget<\/a>, which includes a corporate head tax. Calling the tax a job killer, Waguespack sent the mayor’s office a letter on Nov. 4 with a list of money-saving efficiencies.<\/p>\n

“Debt collection is a huge one, and the fact that they have $1 billion per year, uncollected debt over the last two years, is just outrageous,” Waguespack said.<\/p>\n

Waguespack says the city is owed everything from administrative court costs to parking tickets and fees. He also suggested money savings in fleet management, procurement, and health insurance for city employees. The mayor’s budget team sent a response to Waguespack over the holiday weekend, telling him the ideas are not practical for the 2026 budget.<\/p>\n

“On health insurance, we have contract with our labor partners, and those things all have to be negotiated. These are things that cannot be done in one year or one-budget cycle. These are things that will happen over time,” said Budget Committee Chairman Ald. Jason Ervin.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO | <\/strong>Chicago Mayor Johnson offers aldermen online portal to submit budget efficiency ideas<\/a><\/p>\n

Johnson and Ervin are not backing off on the head tax as a way to pay for public safety initiatives. The tax would charge companies with over 100 employees $21 per head. Ervin says if alderpersons do not vote for the head tax, the options are property tax hikes or service cuts.<\/p>\n

“No one is signing up for service cuts. We continue to ask people, ‘Do you want that pothole filled in 10 days or 30 days?'” Ervin said.<\/p>\n

Waguespack and others deny their alternative ideas will result in service cuts. They are putting together some revenue options that the alderman says does not include a property tax.<\/p>\n

“We have a slew of those revenue ideas that we’re finalizing, and we’ll prepare those for presentation, probably late tomorrow or into Wednesday,” Waguespack said.<\/p>\n

One idea is a delivery tax. The mayor’s office has rejected it because his budget team says it needs state approval. Waguespack says it does not.<\/p>\n

The city council has until the end of year to pass a balanced budget. As of now, the mayor will continue working on more votes for the head tax.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2025 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO (WLS) — Mayor Brandon Johnson’s controversial proposed 2026 budget has caused several Chicago City Council members to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":419281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[196221,20174,960,196218,24967,24970,24969,5462,184659,196220,5386,1818,36234,196219],"class_list":{"0":"post-419280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-196221","9":"tag-brandon-johnson","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-alderman","12":"tag-chicago-budget","13":"tag-chicago-city-council","14":"tag-chicago-mayor","15":"tag-chicago-news","16":"tag-city-of-chicago-budget","17":"tag-corporate-head-tax","18":"tag-il","19":"tag-illinois","20":"tag-mayor-brandon-johnson","21":"tag-scott-waguespack"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115649524816431216","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419280","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=419280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}