CHICAGO CITY HALL (WBBM Newsradio) -- Chicago aldermen opposed to Mayor Brandon Johnson's controversial corporate "head tax" took the wraps off their alternate proposal during a City Council committee hearing.
The aldermen behind this plan say they're actually in agreement with the vast majority of the items in the Johnson Administration's budget, but they believe the mayor's plan to collect a $33 per employee per month tax from every company in the city with more than 500 workers will stifle job growth.
The alternate proposal introduced Tuesday afternoon in the City Council Finance Committee relies on increases in everything from the city's plastic bag tax from ten to 15 cents to a 29% increase in the tax on sales of beer, wine and spirits at retail stores.
It also includes expected proceeds from licensing fees for legalized video gaming terminals across the city, and $46 million in additional unspecified efficiencies.
Supporters of Mayor Johnson's budget proposal and its corporate head tax - which the mayor calls the Community Safety Surcharge - expressed concern that aldermen were being asked to vote on the measure without getting an advance look at the numbers.
Before Tuesday's Finance Committee meeting, Chicago aldermen agreed to schedule a rare Saturday meeting of the full City Council, as the city faces a December 30 deadline to approve a budget and avoid a potential government shutdown.
The proposal from Far South side Alderman Anthony Beale adding the meeting on December 20 passed, 30-19.
The council's new calendar also includes a scheduled meeting on Christmas Eve, but Beale (Ninth Ward) suggested that if aldermen made headway on approving a 2026 budget, the Saturday and holiday meetings might not be needed.
Rogers Park alderwoman Debra Silverstein, the body's only Jewish member, indicated during Council session Tuesday morning that she would not be attending, as the meeting is on the Sabbath, but that she did not object to the schedule under the circumstances.
It's not clear that the City Council has ever put a Saturday session on its calendar, but these are unprecedented times. City leaders in the modern era have never waited this long to approve a budget for the coming year.