Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed $300 million property tax increase to shrink the city’s $1 billion budget deficit is likely to be redirected with new revenues from other taxes and fees.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported 22 of the 50-member Chicago City Council met over the weekend with mayoral aides to explore 10 potential revenue options that included a new $9.50-a-month garbage collection fee, an amusement tax from 9% to 14% on streaming services, and higher taxes on cigarettes, parking, bottled water, gasoline and liquor. Also being considered was an increase in the personal property lease tax on cloud computing from 9% to 10.25%.
Another idea that was raised involved the use of using some or all the $280 million in unallocated federal pandemic relief funds and the cancelation of the Guaranteed Basic Income program and small business assistance that would save the city $60 million.
Senior mayoral adviser Jason Lee said Johnson was willing to back “number of” revenue options in lieu of increasing property taxes.
“The question is always: ‘What can the Council get behind?’ And this process was convened to ascertain that. There were no pre-conditions. No set numbers,” said Lee said. “There’s a lot of pathways to replace a lot of the revenue currently derived from property taxes. … The mayor is open to things that are responsible that don’t create layoffs and don’t gut critical investments. That’s a wide berth to come up with the right solutions.”
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Cut massive amount of city workers who do little or nothing. Cut pensions payment to people who didn’t earn them. School choice with a Cap that is 75% of public school costs. Cut teachers salaries and pensions and other expenses. Better schools, better results huge savings. Job done.