Aldermen prevail over Mayor Johnson in meter windfall vote

CHICAGO CITY HALL (WBBM Newsradio) -- Chicago aldermen voted Monday to make sure the Johnson Administration applies a $75 million windfall to the city's pension debt this year, instead of rolling it into next year's budget.

That windfall is a transaction fee from the new owners of Chicago's parking meter contract. The aldermen who negotiated the agreement with Stonepeak Partners said it was supposed to be an extra pension payment this year, and they called the special meeting after Mayor Brandon Johnson's finance team folded it into already-planned pension payments in the 2027 spending plan.

South side Ald. Pat Dowell, the chair of the Finance Committee who was one of the parties to the agreement, said that was never the plan, and that making an extra payment in 2026 would pay long-term financial dividends for the city.

"Our actions today will save taxpayers conservatively over $213 million over time," Ald. Dowell (3rd Ward) told her colleagues during the short meeting.

But mayoral ally and West side Ald. Jason Ervin, the chair of the Budget and Government Operations Committee, argued the city's making enough extra pension payments already, and that money is better directed toward services that people need.

"Every move we make we end up three moves behind," said Ald. Ervin (28th Ward), "and the people who are really paying for this is the people who need these services the most."

Forty-three aldermen approved the pension move, which appears to open up a $75 million dollar hole in the mayor's $17.6 billion spending plan for next year. North side Ald. Scott Waguespack told reporters after the vote that filling the hole is the mayor's job.

"It's his budget," said Ald. Waguespack (32nd Ward). "He needs to go and find that and I think that's what he intends to do."

A spokesperson for Mayor Johnson's office released a statement after the vote which in part said that "the long-term value of pension payments made today must be weighed against inflation and the needs of the city," and that the additional pension payment could put some city services at risk.