Horror-book master Stephen King's classic "The Shining" is 447 pages long, and "Pet Sematary" is about 400 pages long. But at 675 pages, Mayor Brandon Johnson's proposed 2027 budget for the city of Chicago beats them for length ... and if you ask some aldermen, the number of jump scares.
The mayor's budget presentation before a special City Council meeting on Wednesday kicked off city leaders' sprint to the end of the year, by which time they must approve a budget or risk having to shutter city services. The city came within two weeks of doing just that last year, as aldermen frustrated by the mayor's unwillingness to budge on reinstating a per-worker corporate "head tax" wrote and passed their own budget without it over Mayor Johnson's objections.
That budget eventually took effect without the mayor's signature, and the ghost of budget battles past has rattled around City Hall like Jacob Marley ever since. The mayor's latest spending plan threatens to exhume those battles with the added overlay of February's citywide election, when the mayor and all 50 aldermen will be asking voters for four more years.
"Let us plant the seeds of a fair Chicago," the mayor exhorted aldermen during his budget speech, introducing a $17.5 billion spending plan that includes ten new teams of tree-trimming workers, an expansion of the "Chicago Youth Works" job program to hire a total of 40,000 young people, continued growth in spending on mental health services, and pulling hundreds of millions of dollars out of economic development funds to help Chicago Public Schools.
"We have an abundance of resources to invest," said the mayor, referring not to the city's current revenue which is about $882 million short of expenses, but its projected future revenue under what he's calling the "Fair Share" budget. And like Jason Voorhees or Freddy Krueger, the mayor's corporate head tax returns in the 2027 budget proposal. Under it, the city would collect $25 from Chicago's largest employers for every worker they have inside the city limits. However, this version is a little different in that it offers an equivalent tax credit for every worker those corporations employ in certain under-invested parts of the city, mostly on the West and South sides.
"It's about a fair investment - funding those resources that draw those corporations to Chicago in the first place," the mayor explained, noting the city's status as a top spot for business re-location. "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."
The mayor's budget also counts on more than $230 million in additional money from an increase in the tax the city collects on items that businesses rent or lease, including software and office equipment. Its official title is the Personal Property Lease Tax (PPLT), but most people around the Hall call it the "cloud tax," and last year it went up to 15% with a pledge not to raise it again until 2028. However, the mayor wants to raise it to 20%, along with a doubling of the city's tax on sports gambling and an expansion of the city program using camera-equipped vehicles and CTA buses to pump out parking tickets.
"We must protect the services and programs Chicagoans depend on," the mayor told aldermen, "and we must do that without asking working-class and middle-class families to shoulder even more of the burden."
After the nearly 50-minute address, as aldermen filed out to pick up their copies of the budget to study at home, other City Council members - many of whom were part of the self-proclaimed Budget Accountability Coalition that opposed the mayor's priorities last year,
"We don't believe this is a fiscally prudent budget," said Downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly, speaking on behalf of the 29 aldermen who sent the mayor a letter weeks ago urging him not to bring the "head tax" back from the dead. "This Council demonstrated last year that it had no appetite for one. It's a job killer."
"You can't run a city government on ideology," said North side Ald. Scott Waguespack, one of the leaders of the self-proclaimed Budget Accountability Coalition, as he called on the mayor's team to provide more information about how specific programs will be funded. However, Ald. Waguespack (32nd Ward) signaled that the group was not inclined to "rescue" the mayor's budget like last year, which means a sequel is unlikely. His Northwest side colleague Ald. Andre Vasquez raised concerns about the $400 million the Johnson Administration has proposed borrowing, largely to bankroll payments to settle lawsuits tied to police misconduct.
"I'm interested in seeing how the math adds up," said Ald. Vasquez. "Before we get the budget books, it's all the sales pitch."
Shortly thereafter, Southwest side Ald. Raymond Lopez appeared before reporters, brandishing his copy of the mayor's budget to highlight the more than $200 million in new spending in the 2027 spending plan. And as aldermen prepare for budget hearings starting Monday, the dramatic representative from the 15th Ward uttered a quote especially apt for the week before Halloween.
"The devil is in the details."
