Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is downplaying comments made by his chief financial officer (CFO) that the city could raise property taxes to fill its $1 billion budget deficit.
WLS.com reports CFO Jill Jaworski told a Bloomberg that a property tax increase was a “likely” strategy for addressing the city’s budget crisis. Johnson proposed a $300 million property tax hike last year, but the City Council unanimously rejected that initiative.
Johnson told a press conference that other strategies to close the budget gap were being proposed, although he declined to offer a specific preview of the ideas being raised.
“We have a working group that is coming up with a lot of ideas,” he said. “Some of those ideas have been already pushed through by administration for us to contemplate, and it’s still too early to determine what our ultimate package will look like. We’re going to contemplate all ideas, but it is too early at this point to ultimately determine which package will ultimately prevail.”
Cut the budget gap by CUTTING SPENDING!!!