Chicago council, ‘starting to legislate,’ sends $16.7 billion budget to mayor

By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – The Chicago City Council has approved a $16.7 billion budget for 2026 and sent it to Mayor Brandon Johnson.

Aldermen rejected the mayor’s corporate head tax and passed a spending plan Saturday with higher taxes on cloud computing, liquor and plastic bags.

The alternative budget also includes a roughly $1 billion sweep of tax-increment-financing dollars to Chicago Public Schools.

Alderman Anthony Beale voted in favor of the budget, despite concerns about another potential credit downgrade for the city. Beale said Johnson’s administration promised the 2025 budget would not lead to a credit downgrade, but it came “almost immediately” after the budget passed.

“The downgrade is because we did not pay the full pension payment. The downgrade is because, once again, we’re bailing out CPS with a $1 billion TIF sweep,” Beale said.

Alderman Jim Gardiner echoed other city council members when he said the budget was not perfect, but he still supported it.

Gardiner addressed aldermen who had concerns about the budget including video gambling to generate revenue.

“The gamble that got us here today is the gamble that we made on migrants,” Gardiner said, as shouting was heard in the council chambers.

Gardiner said he wasn’t hating on immigrants and didn’t blame them for coming.

“We invited them with free food, free clothing, free rent, free education. That’s why we’re here today,” the alderman said.

Gardiner said the city gave migrants more than $1 billion to come to Chicago.

“We gambled on the migrants and we lost,” Gardiner said, adding that city officials “pushed them to come here.”

Gardiner addressed the mayor and said he knew a bad gambler when he saw one.

“Mayor Johnson, you’re a bad gambler. I cannot go with you at all,” Gardiner said.

The budget includes a provision to sell city debt to collectors.

Alderman Desmon Yancy supported the measure and said deadbeat developers and city workers owe millions of dollars.

“To be paid by the city and ignoring your debts to the city is insane. Many of these employees are able to pay their debts to the city but don’t feel compelled to pay and that’s not ok,” Yancy said.

Yancy said attacks from the Chicago Teachers Union, the Johnson administration and some aldermen, along with a lack of goodwill, made the current situation “inevitable.”

According to the Illinois Policy Institute, the budget includes $535 million in tax increases.

Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza is considering a run for mayor in 2027. Mendoza opposed Johnson’s head tax but said aldermen needed to start with a lower budget rate and see what was absolutely necessary.

“And whatever is not, you tighten your belt and you re-right this ship. It’s the only way the city will get back on a better, stronger financial path, which is absolutely necessary to be able to build our city and make it a city that is much more affordable for all Chicagoans,” Mendoza told The Center Square.

The Better Government Association released a statement shortly after the budget passed Saturday.

“The process marked a sea change in Chicago’s legislative norms, with the mayor making an initial proposal and a majority of the city council rejecting substantial parts of it and introducing their own counterproposal,” the BGA statement said.

The group said 2025 was a far cry from many years when mayors’ proposals sailed through nearly uncontested.

“Chicago’s legislature is really starting to legislate,” the BGA added.

Johnson said Friday he had not decided whether he would veto the budget if it passed.

Thirty aldermen voted in favor of the spending plan Saturday. The city council would need 34 votes to override a veto.

The council had meetings scheduled Dec. 23 and 24 but changed the schedule after Saturday’s vote to hold meetings Dec. 29 and Jan. 21.