Chicago mayor shares "Fair Share" election-year budget

CHICAGO CITY HALL (WBBM Newsradio) -- Mayor Brandon Johnson is promising Chicagoans more spending on tree-trimming, more summer jobs for young people and more help for unhoused people in his election-year budget, while pledging to give the bill to the city's biggest employers and richest people.

"Let us plant the seeds of a fair Chicago," the mayor urged City Council members during his budget address to a special session of City Council on Wednesday. "We must protect the services and programs Chicagoans depend on. And we must do that without asking working-class and middle-class families to shoulder even more of the burden."

Large television lights and a TelePrompTer set up in City Council chambers assisted the mayor in making the case to the public for his $17.6 billion spending plan, which was distributed to aldermen after his nearly 50-minute address.

"We have an abundance of resources to invest," the mayor said of the money he was earmarking in his "Fair Share" budget to hire ten additional tree-trimming crews, increase spending on mental health and housing services, and boost hiring of young people through the "Chicago Youth Works" program from 33,000 this year to 40,000 in 2027, citing unmet demand from teenagers and young adults for employment opportunities.

"We have to put an end to this lie that young people do not want to work," he said to applause from supporters in the gallery and his City Council allies.

And the mayor's budget turns to the city's business community for that "abundance of resources," including $230 million in additional money from an increase in a tax the city collects on equipment that businesses lease or rent (it's called the "Personal Property Lease Tax," or PPLT), and a new version of his attempt to bring back Chicago's per-worker corporate "head tax." This new version would collect $25 per worker from the city's biggest employers, but would give companies an equal tax credit for every employee they have in under-served areas of the city.

Mayor Johnson cited Chicago's popularity as a spot for business relocation as rationale for the new taxes, calling it "a fair investment - funding those resources that draw those corporations to Chicago in the first place."

"If Chicago is good enough to bring your business, then the people of Chicago should be good enough to hire and work in those businesses," he added in a deviation from his script as supporters cheered.

The budget also includes $9 million from a proposed $0.15 tax on every non-food and non-medical package in the city, in a move aimed at deliveries from Amazon and other online retailers. The mayor's team says it's designed to promote recycling and shopping local. It would also nearly double the city's tax on sports betting.

Aldermen who spoke to reporters after the mayor's budget address said they needed to dig into the specifics of his proposals, but expressed concern about plans to borrow $400 million as a way to pay for future police misconduct settlements. And members of the "Budget Accountability Coalition," whose opposition to last year's head tax led them to pass their own budget over the mayor's objections, noted that the spending plan appeared unbalanced.

The city must enact a 2027 budget by December 31 to avoid a potential shutdown. Aldermen last year made that deadline with less than two weeks to spare, and the debate over this budget will come as the mayor and many City Council members make their individual cases for re-election.