Pritzker criticizes Johnson’s proposed employee tax

At the Economic Club of Chicago, Pritzker addressed a group of Chicago elites for a conversation about immigration and economic growth.

The governor came out against Johnson’s proposal to charge large businesses a fee per employee.

To fund public safety initiatives, the mayor’s budget calls for a $21-per-employee monthly tax on companies with more than 100 Chicago employees.

“I am absolutely four-square opposed to a head tax for the city of Chicago. It penalizes the very thing that we want, which is we want more employment in the city of Chicago,” Pritzker said.

Instead of the corporate tax, the governor told the Economic Club of Chicago city leaders should focus on efficiencies.

Meanwhile, speculation that Pritzker will seek the Democratic nomination for president keeps growing. The governor, however, dodged a question about whether he’ll run for president, but did say he’s pitched bringing the Democratic National Convention back to Chicago in 2028.

“I was very proud of what we did last year. I have turned around and talked to the Democratic National Convention just to say we don’t know if everybody is on board yet, but I wanted to make sure that we had our hat in the ring,” Pritzker said.

Later, the governor put on his political pundit hat and shared thoughts about why his party lost the White House last year. 

“I became a Democrat because I think we ought to be fighting for people’s individual rights which I think we ought to be fighting for people’s individual’s freedom. I think we ought to be fighting for the middle class and the working class and the most vulnerable,” Pritzker said. “Republicans – smart politics, I guess by Donald Trump, set a bunch of traps that some Democrats walked right into. I think we’ve got to stop doing that. I think we’ve got to focus on what really matters.”

With President Trump routinely calling out Chicago’s violence and the Trump administration carrying out sweeping immigration enforcement, the governor tried to paint a picture of a city that’s thriving.

“This man has some weird idea in his head about the city of Chicago. This is truly one of the great cities and I think he just can’t get it out of his head that there’s something going on, that it’s all on fire,” Pritzker said. “The city’s not on fire. Indeed things are better than they were five, seven years ago.”