Property-tax hike dropped, loan included in updated Chicago spending plan

[December 17, 2024]  By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – The Chicago City Council on Monday approved a new budget without a property-tax increase, but many aldermen say the mayor still needs to cut spending.

The council voted 27-23 in favor of a $17.1 billion dollar budget, which includes a $40 million loan.

Protesters disrupted Monday’s meeting multiple times as aldermen considered the new spending plan. Several residents criticized Mayor Brandon Johnson and the revised budget proposal during the public comment period. Not long after public comments finished, several people began shouting.

The shouting continued when the mayor tried to restore order, and Johnson instructed the sergeant-at-arms to clear the public from the council chamber.

Residents also protested Friday, when the council abruptly recessed before a budget vote could be taken.

Eleventh Ward Alderman Nicole Lee said Monday she was voting against the budget. Lee said the mayor’s process was disorganized.

“All expert accounts indicate that this budget’s over-reliance on one-time remedies, rather than structural solutions, are gonna lead us to multiple credit-rating agency downgrades,” Lee said.

Johnson included a handful of job cuts, which helped reduce the city’s spending plan for fiscal year 2025 from $17.3 billion to $17.1 billion.

Chicago’s budget for fiscal year 2024 was $16.6 billion.

The mayor said his administration is investing in people.

“We’re going to protect people who see public education as a human right. We’re going to protect people, of course, who are here who have migrated or emigrated to this city,” Johnson said.

The Chicago City Council
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In a letter sent to Johnson on Sunday, 15 aldermen called the mayor’s fourth budget attempt “a collection of reconfigured savings, recalibrated revenue projections and deferred payments that will ultimately serve as a delayed backdoor property tax increase.”

The letter states, “This gimmick will add to the debt burden already faced by every Chicagoan, currently pegged at $10,642, a 30.3% increase from FY2023 to FY2024 according to the Chicago Civic Federation.”

The aldermen requested $823.7 million in spending reductions from the mayor’s latest proposal.

In November, the city council unanimously rejected the mayor’s first budget proposal for 2025, which included a $300 million property tax increase.

Last Friday’s council meeting recessed abruptly after reports surfaced that Johnson and his supporters did not have enough votes to pass a spending plan, which included more than $230 million in higher taxes and fees.

Ninth Ward Alderman Anthony Beale was one of 15 council members who asked the mayor to cut nearly $824 million from the amended budget.

“This budget is definitely not investing in people. You’re hurting the people of the city of Chicago that will continue to flee this city, because they’re tired of being taxed and fled right out of here,” Beale said told The Center Square.

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