CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is scheduled to give her 2022 Budget Address at Monday morning’s City Council meeting, and according to reports, she’s going to call for an increase in property taxes.
Mayor Lightfoot reportedly will call on the City Council to increase the property tax levy by more than $76 million in 2022. According to the Sun-Times, which obtained a PowerPoint presentation distributed to influential aldermen in advance of the mayor’s 2022 budget address, the $76 million property tax levy includes nearly $23 million from an automatic property tax increase that’s tied to the rate of inflation; plus, $25 million would be used for the mayor’s $3.7 billion capital plan and more than $28 million of it would come from “new property.”
Alderman Anthony Beale (9th Ward) told the Sun-Times Chicagoans have “no tolerance for another property tax increase” of any size for any purpose, including capital.
“The people of this city are hemorrhaging [money]…We need to continue to cut and find other ways other than constantly hitting the people over the head,” Beale said.
“We’re getting enough funds from the federal [government] where we should not have to hit people upside the head for a capital increase.”
When the mayor unveiled her three-year financial plan, she said she hoped not to have to raise property taxes at all.
Last year, the city increased property taxes by $94 million.
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