An effort is underway to force a special meeting of Chicago’s City Council to reject Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed $300 million property tax increase to fill the municipal’s budget gap.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports 29 alderpersons co-signed a call for a special City Council meeting, which would vote down the tax proposal and force Johnson to start new negotiations on dealing with the budget, which has a projected deficit of roughly $1 billion. The City Council’s rules require 26 members for a quorum, but 34 votes are needed to suspend the rules for an immediate vote on the increase – which has yet to be formally introduced by Johnson, who has delayed his budget address by two weeks.
“That’s why the budget was delayed,” said Alderman Anthony Beale. “Everything is delayed to run the clock out to force the aldermen to vote for something under the pretense that we have to pass something before the end of the year. We defeat that by re-setting the clock and forcing the administration to come up with something that’s better for the city of Chicago.”
If Johnson formally announces the proposal, it would represent the second time this year that Johnson pushed for a property tax hike. In March, Chicago voters rejected a referendum on the so-called “mansion tax” designed to increase the real estate transfer tax on residential and commercial properties sold for $1 million and higher.
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