Portraying himself as the “collaborator in chief,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said Tuesday said his ongoing negotiations with the City Council will determine how much of a property tax increase, if any, must be imposed on beleaguered Chicago taxpayers.
One day after a top mayoral aide told the Sun-Times Johnson’s proposed $300 million property tax increase would be significantly reduced, the mayor refused to declare his bottom line. Nor would he say which of the 10 potential revenue options evaluated by his budget team he would support.
The mayor said he’s open to a “plethora of ideas” but won’t compromise his core values of “investing in people” — such as through summer jobs and affordable housing — while avoiding layoffs and furlough days. He also is insisting on making a $272 million pension advance payment in addition to the annual contribution mandated by state law.
“The mayor of Chicago is true to his word as a collaborator,” Johnson said, adding that “we are working with City Council, who have the responsibility to pass the budget that I presented.”
Johnson portrayed the “robust debate” that began in earnest over the weekend as a breath of fresh air for a Council that is used to taking order from the mayor’s office.
“City Council members deserve to be included in this process. That’s different than how other mayors have behaved,” Johnson said.
“We have a far more robust operation,” he added. “We’re not afraid to have the hard and difficult conversations.”
Johnson campaigned on a promise to hold the line on property taxes and used a host of one-time revenues to balance his first budget without breaking that promise.
He said he proposed the $300 million property tax increase in his second budget knowing it would meet a stone wall of Council resistance .
“I don’t want to have to raise property taxes. … I’ve made that very clear. And left with the decision of property tax vs. layoffs, we knew that layoffs would be far more severe and damaging,” he said.
“This proposal that is in front of the City Council right now — my finance team continues to have robust conversations about other forms of revenue that they should consider.”
Twenty-two Council members met Saturday with top mayoral aides to begin negotiations that, some alderpersons said, should have begun long before Johnson belatedly introduced his $17.3 billion budget.
The meeting began with distribution of a memo evaluating those 10 revenue options.
Another memo evaluated the potential long-term cost of reducing the pension advance above the contribution mandated by state law.
Chief Financial Officer Jill Jaworski noted even the state mandated contribution is “insufficient to stop pension liabilities from growing.”
Alderpersons who spearheaded the call for a special meeting to kill the $300 million property tax increase have not been included in budget talks yet.
“We will have conversations with everyone,” Johnson said. “I can assure you of that — even the ones who struggle to support the progressive agenda.”