Buckle up, Chicago. Mayor Brandon Johnson is running the Hail Mary play, both for Chicago\u2019s finances and his political future.<\/p>\n
The mayor\u2019s lengthy response<\/a> on Thursday to an alternative budget framework<\/a> put forth by 26 aldermen last week was an exercise in political irresponsibility. The mayor\u2019s team dismissed virtually all of the suggestions the majority of the council made and came back with almost no alternative proposals of their own. And the mayor\u2019s cheering section, the Chicago Teachers Union, decided, appallingly, to engage in the politics of personal destruction naming \u201cThe Alders willing to shutdown our city,\u201d suggesting they will provide backup if Johnson digs in sufficiently for Chicago\u2019s own version of a federal government shutdown. Be very afraid of that.<\/p>\n If nothing else, this budget season has exposed as fiction the mayor\u2019s repeated claim of being more collaborative than his predecessors when it comes to relations with the City Council. In the past, Johnson\u2019s \u201ccollaboration,\u201d such as it\u2019s been, has been born of necessity as much as anything else \u2014 a consequence of a divisive brand of politics that has sapped aldermanic confidence in his leadership. It\u2019s not surprising that any pretense to give-and-take is on the shelf now that we\u2019re fast approaching election season in Chicago.<\/p>\n But it is dismaying. And, if you care about Chicago\u2019s future, very worrying.<\/p>\n Long after a majority of alders made it clear they wouldn\u2019t support reviving the city\u2019s corporate head tax, Johnson\u2019s insistence on a monthly $21 tax on each worker at businesses employing 100 or more is beginning to put Chicago in truly perilous territory when it comes to its finances.<\/p>\n Team Johnson estimates that tax would generate $100 million; the city\u2019s budget gap is $1.2 billion. A head tax would crush whatever remaining confidence companies and investors have in Chicago as a healthy place to do business. There are clear alternatives to that much-despised levy, but we\u2019re not in the realm of logic and practicality anymore.<\/p>\n Johnson clearly wants desperately to stand for reelection having made the \u201crich\u201d pay more in taxes to bankroll his agenda. That goal is what has animated his mayoralty from the start, and he\u2019s obviously been frustrated at his inability to convince Springfield lawmakers, the business community and even ordinary Chicago voters to endorse more levies on a business sector that already is heavily taxed.<\/p>\n Now, it\u2019s the City Council\u2019s turn. And they\u2019re not buying what the mayor is selling either.<\/p>\n As a result, the first week of December is nearing its close and Johnson has only brinksmanship on offer. It would be one thing if all that was at stake was his future political standing. But he\u2019s holding Chicago itself hostage over an ideological demand that at the end of the day isn\u2019t critical to balancing the budget.<\/p>\n What do we mean by \u201cholding Chicago hostage\u201d? The agencies that determine the city\u2019s credit rating \u2014 Standard & Poor\u2019s, Moody\u2019s and the like \u2014 are watching this process just like us journalists and other interested observers. Those agencies, in determining how much of a risk the city\u2019s bonds are for investors, will consider not just the details of the final budget product for 2026 but how the council and mayor arrived at it.<\/p>\n In short, the stability of Chicago\u2019s governance is a factor in these ratings as well. And right now Chicago simply isn\u2019t a good bet on that score if you\u2019re an investor, whether in the city\u2019s bonds, a real estate project or a new restaurant. Chicago\u2019s credit rating currently is a scant (and wobbly) two notches above junk status.<\/p>\n So Johnson at this stage truly is playing with fire. If he continues on this course \u2014 threatening budget vetoes, summarily dismissing potentially viable cost-cutting or revenue ideas \u2014 soon there will be open discussion of precisely what happens if the budget isn\u2019t passed by the Dec. 31 deadline. That\u2019s never happened in this city\u2019s long history. Never.<\/p>\n Ask President Donald Trump and members of Congress from either party how much they enjoyed the longest federal government shutdown ever. The federal government can issue debt and print money to paper over fiscal woes. But our city\u2019s functionality depends heavily on the confidence of bondholders, many of whom don\u2019t live here. Blowing the deadline would be disastrous.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not too late. The mayor should pivot and begin engaging in good faith with aldermen, including his own Finance Committee chair, Ald. Pat Dowell, 3rd, who was among the 26 to sign last week\u2019s letter outlining budget alternatives to the head tax.<\/p>\n Unions representing the city\u2019s workforce also should understand that even if they end up \u201cwinning\u201d in this budget crisis by not agreeing to any money-saving concessions, they will risk losing far more in the future if the city\u2019s access to the debt markets is badly constrained or even shut off. If the mayor isn\u2019t going to provide appropriate leadership, those unions could help fill the breach \u2014 and it would be in their self-interest to do so. Now.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, an awful lot of short-term thinking seems still to be at work in the budget showdown.<\/p>\n Shared sacrifice is the only realistic \u2014 and fair \u2014 way out of this mess.<\/p>\n Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here<\/a> or email letters@chicagotribune.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Buckle up, Chicago. 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