It calls for: • The twice-revised $68.5 million property tax increase to be eliminated altogether.
• Skipping a $40 million payment on a loan taken out to buy the site of the since-demolished Michael Reese Hospital.
Johnson’s original proposal of a $300 million tax hike was unanimously rejected by the City Council.
“This is barely denting the surface” of a city budget that has at least 30 percent more full-time employees than it did pre-pandemic, he said.
“So many of the Progressive colleagues seem to just hang their hat on the property tax increase.
In an attempt to break Chicago’s protracted budget impasse, Mayor Brandon Johnson is now proposing to remove a revised $68.5 million property tax increase and eliminate 10 positions in the mayor’s office.
December is just over two weeks away. The Johnson administration spent Sunday briefing small groups of alderpersons on his most recent offer, which would be the deadline that would cause an unprecedented government shutdown.
It requires:.
• To completely repeal the twice-revised $68.5 million property tax increase.
• Ignoring a $40 million loan payment that was made to purchase the location of the now-demolished Michael Reese Hospital. If Chicago won the 2016 Summer Games, that area would have been transformed into an Olympic village.
• $10 million in “cost recovery” from the charging of police and traffic services to “ticketed event” organizers. The city has made numerous unsuccessful attempts to recoup expenses from professional sports teams over the years.
• Unspecified energy savings of $5 million.
Eight million dollars will be cut from public safety, most likely by filling police vacancies.
Ten jobs were cut from his own office budget, saving $1 million. The budget for the mayor’s office has skyrocketed under both Johnson and Lori Lightfoot, his predecessor.
• Saving $2.08 million by cutting middle-management positions in city departments, such as deputy commissioners and their assistants, in an effort to reduce the city’s overburdened bureaucracy.
The mayor still seems to be opposed to furlough days or layoffs.
The City Council unanimously rejected Johnson’s initial idea of raising taxes by $300 million. Additionally, the mayor’s later proposals to reduce the increase by half, to $150 million, and then settle for $68 million fell at least seven votes short of the 26 needed for passage.
It is unclear if the troubled mayor’s most recent proposal will be sufficient to complete his $17.3 billion budget.
I, Ald. The plan was described as “tinkering at the margins” by Johnson’s hand-picked Public Safety Committee Chair, Brian Hopkins (2nd). “.”.
Johnson intends to replace the $68.5 million property tax levy with other sources of funding, but Hopkins said he doesn’t trust them.
His decision to forego the Reese payment particularly troubled him because the budget is already tenuously balanced with one-time revenues, including savings from a large refinance.
In reference to the crucial bond rating that establishes the cost of borrowing for cities, Hopkins stated, “We’ll be downgraded for that.”.
Co-Chair Andre Vasquez (40th) of the Progressive Caucus told the Sun-Times via text that the city might lose millions of dollars if the Reese payment is not made.
Hopkins said that it is “crying uncle” to skip a Reese payment. That is simply acknowledging that we have run out of ideas. “.”.
In keeping property taxes in check, as he pledged to do during the mayoral campaign, Johnson deserves praise for “doing one thing we asked him to do.”. However, Hopkins stated that this “doesn’t automatically mean” that he is willing to back a budget that still calls for “very little cutting.”.
According to him, “this is barely denting the surface” of a city budget that has at least 30% more full-time staff than it had before the pandemic. We have added a large number of new employees to this city, and they are dispersed throughout the city. A large number of them were financed by ARPA funds. The ARPA funds are no longer available. Going forward, we are unable to include them in the budget. You can’t sustain it. “”.
Side Ald. in the Southwest. One of the mayor’s harshest Council critics, Marty Quinn (13th), claimed that the mayor’s most recent proposal doesn’t “do enough to get the structure right” in anticipation of even greater deficits the following year and the year after.
Quinn stated, “We must keep pushing the envelope on right-sizing.”.
We’re only beginning to explore our options for independence as a Council. Let us keep pushing the boundaries. We are establishing ourselves as equals. “”.
Ald. Maria Hadden (48th), the Progressive Caucus’ other co-chair, remained silent on Sunday while they awaited their budget briefings. Hey Ald. Calls and texts were not returned by Walter Burnett (27th), the vice mayor and dean of the Council and Johnson’s de facto floor leader.
Hopkins expressed doubt that the mayor’s most recent proposal would receive 26 votes. The Council will meet again at 1 p.m. on Friday after adjourning its meeting. m. Monday. .
The property tax increase seems to be the only thing that many of the progressive colleagues are interested in. The last thing they wanted was to be held accountable. Hopkins stated, “They’re not responsible for it anymore.”.
“We removed the property tax increase,” the mayor said in an attempt to make deals. Your field home is right here. Whatever else you wanted is here. He might be able to pass a budget and close that gap.
Johnson had canceled a vote that was supposed to take place on Friday because he still had 19 solid votes after days of intense lobbying.
Friday was a wild day at City Hall, with members of the “Common Sense Caucus” demanding more cuts during a packed hallway news conference.
We will present the departments with their 2020 budget along with the future inflation cost. Your number is that. “Figure it out,” Ald said. (9th) Anthony Beale.
Downtown Ald. “I might even be willing to consider eliminating Chicago Police Department vacancies,” said Brendan Reilly (42nd). Overtime is frequently covered by the funds allocated for open CPD positions. According to Reilly, cutting them this year “is a fair compromise to allow us to plug this gap with the implicit understanding that we could come back and restore those [police] positions next year.”.
It is almost a given that the mayor will have to abandon other ideas he had attempted to save money on, like spending $50 million to create 2,000 more summer youth jobs or contributing an extra $270 million to city pensions, in order to get more votes. Refusing to make that payment would probably lower the city’s credit score. However, so might a drawn-out budget dispute.
According to Civic Federation President Joe Ferguson, Johnson’s $17.3 billion budget should only require $150 million in cuts to be completed.
“That may seem like a lot, but if you exclude pension costs, the city’s budget is 47 percent higher than it was before the pandemic,” Ferguson said.
It is simply not fair to those who are attempting to reach a consensus when you say that there is no way to reduce the workforce [and] make shared sacrifices. “”.
