Johnson’s budget task force recommends new fees, tax hike to close Chicago deficit

CHICAGO (WGN) — To close the city’s staggering fiscal deficit, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s budget task force is proposing massive new fees and steep cuts.

While it’s just a recommendation, the next move is at the mayor’s discretion, as there is just under a month remaining until Johnson will need to inform the City Council on how he intends to address the city’s billion-dollar budget gap.

Chicago’s budget season begins with a working group from business, labor, and community groups recommending a massive new revenue source, including a property tax hike. 

Appearing this morning on WGN Radio on Wednesday, Sept. 17, Johnson, who has not yet unveiled his budget proposal, ruled out raising property taxes.

“I’m not raising property taxes. I’ve made that very clear,” Johnson said. “In order for us to continue to invest in city services to make sure that we’re investing in community safety, we have to have the revenue to do it.”

To close the city’s $1.15 billion budget shortfall, the mayor’s working group published ideas to save roughly $455 million and add $1.65 billion in new revenue. They suggest raising taxes on bottled water, plastic bags, a 4-a-month employee head tax, increasing the garbage collection fee, and an annual property tax increase tied to inflation. 

On the savings side, the task force recommends furlough days, raising the employee health care contribution, disbanding the police horse unit, and diverting some medical emergency 911 calls to telehealth service providers.

Although the mayor assembled the working group, he has yet to endorse specific proposals.

“Part of it is ensuring that government is more productive in how we deliver services, and there are ways in which we can certainly update our systems to do just that,” Johnson said.

On Tuesday, Mayor Johnson signaled he’d like to avoid steep cuts.

“One of the things that it’s clear to note is that the working group did establish that we do not have a spending problem in Chicago; we have a revenue challenge,” Johnson said.

Joe Ferguson, president of the Civic Federation, says the fiscal emergency is more than just a revenue problem and offers a chance to rethink the size of the city payroll.

“We have to talk about the big stuff and big stuff always involves workforce,” Ferguson said. “It doesn’t have to be laying off a bunch of people. The mayor comes from labor, he, therefore, has standing to convene labor to say I need you to be part of burden sharing here, give me your solutions that get us to a place that does not require layoffs.”

After last year’s budget process dragged on into December, City Council members are already signaling they won’t be a rubble stamp. It could be another long budget season.