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.”
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.