CHICAGO CITY HALL (WBBM Newsradio) -- Chicago aldermen are getting their first look at the latest revision to Mayor Brandon Johnson's proposed head tax on the city's biggest employers.
But it's not clear whether the changes will be enough to break a stalemate on next year's budget.
The original version of what the mayor calls the "Community Safety Surcharge" would have collected $21 per employee per month from every company with more than 100 workers in the city.
The mayor said the new version would raise the tax to $33 per worker per month from companies with more than 500 workers ... which he said would apply to about 175 corporations.
"Thirty bucks a month is not going to change their bottom line," the mayor told reporters Tuesday at City Hall, using as an example Bank of America: "The community safety surcharge would amount to about 0.0008% of their annual revenue."
Jung Yoon from the mayor's policy team said that it would cost more for those companies to shift Chicago-based workers to remote sites than just pay the tax: "That is not enough to pick up your entire corporation and move to the suburbs."
Johnson said the revision is a response to concern from aldermen about the burden on restaurants, grocery stores and other smaller businesses.
"We are not talking about your local retail shops," said the mayor, noting his willingness to adjust provisions of his proposed budget as a way to win over reluctant aldermen. "Do I think this places us in a stronger position? I do."
But a number of aldermen have said they're still opposed to anything that could discourage companies from growing in the city ... even as the mayor's people insist ending the previous head tax had no affect on job growth.