Some Chicago aldermen say Mayor Brandon Johnson and his budget team are pushing the city toward a shutdown, after a weekend meeting ended with no resolution to a fiscal stalemate.
More than a dozen aldermen met with the Johnson Administration for about three hours on Saturday to discuss potential alternatives to the mayor's community safety surcharge, which would collect $21 per employee per month from every company with more than 100 workers in the city.
But Roscoe Village aldermen Scott Waguespack says the meeting ended about where it began.
"The mayor's office basically said 'we're not going to take any of your alternatives,' and doubled down on his own budget proposal," said Waguespack (32nd Ward), noting that the Finance Committee rejected it less than a month ago.
Waguespack says the mayor's position is pushing the city toward a "financial cliff" with a little more than three weeks until a budget must be approved.
"It comes, to me, straight out of a Trump playbook," the alderman said, making reference to the recent partial shutdown of government operations in Washington.
Mayor Johnson has insisted that Chicagoans support his strategy of raising taxes on businesses and wealthier people in the city.
"The people of Chicago are going to continue to stand with me and demand that big corporations put more skin in the game," he told reporters during an appearance on the South side last week. "The pressure that government has put on working people in this city has been incredibly severe."
Waguespack says at least 26 aldermen are ready to vote for alternatives, representing a simple majority of Council members. He and his allies are working to find enough to withstand a potential veto from the mayor.