CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Hearings on Mayor Brandon Johnson's $17.3 billion budget will begin Wednesday. Johnson has been making the case for it since his address to the city council last week, and he told WBBM Newsradio that a $300 million property tax hike is a painful, but necessary element.
Johnson said the city has squeezed about all it can from the budget but added that he's ready to listen to alderpersons about their ideas for revenue. A property tax increase, though, seems inevitable.
“After $700 million of cost savings, we had a choice: We either lay off police officers, firefighters, streets and sanitation workers — or ask homeowners to lean in a little more,” Johnson said. “I know that’s difficult. That’s hard. That’s not something that I wanted to do, but left with very few options on revenue and not wanting to cut and lay off our neighbors, this is what I’ve proposed.”
Budget Director Annette Guzman defended the decision to keep paying extra in order to shrink the city’s gargantuan pension debt, though others have urged the administration to skip the extra payments this time.
“All we’re doing is saying, ‘For once, we are going to put in a sufficient amount,’” said Guzman. “We’re not looking to say that what the state requires is sufficient, because it has never been sufficient. That is why we are in the disaster that we are in today with our pension funds.”
Johnson pointed out that things might be different if plans for a graduated income tax had been approved by Illinois voters. Although Gov. JB Pritzker has shown little enthusiasm for making another attempt at the so-called Fair Tax Act, the mayor admitted it's not the only state revenue on his mind:
“Our team is in constant communication with the governor’s team,” he said. “There are a host of ideas that we are discussing. One of the challenges right now … around the [Personal Property Replacement Tax], was a particular revenue stream that we didn’t anticipate we wouldn’t have, so there are discussions about how we can find other revenue streams”
Budget Director Annette Guzman explained.
“Over the last two years, the city has experienced the loss of a pretty substantial revenue source, known as the Personal Property Replacement Tax,” Guzman said. “That is a tax that the state now collects on behalf of municipalities. It is a tax on corporations, and over the last year we’ve lost about $160 million a year.”
City Council members will question the mayor’s finance team this week.
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