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“When corporate leaders come to me, you know the No. 1 issue
they talk about? It’s safety. That’s what they talk about. They
don’t talk about job killing. They don’t have those
conversations with me,” Johnson said.
Chicago 33rd Ward Republican committeeman Jason Proctor said the
mayor is lying and there was a reason a previous head tax was
eliminated.
“I understand the need for public safety and things along those
lines but there are better ways to do it than continue to
alienate jobs, organizations that would be paying this head
tax,” Proctor told The Center Square.
Chicago Flips Red founder Zoe Leigh offered strong words for the
mayor and referred to the Chicago Teachers Union in a social
media statement on Johnson’s proposal to consider a corporate
head tax.
“We need Operation Greylord 2.0. The feds need to come in and
shut all of this down…Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration,
CTU, all of it. A simple forensic audit would expose the
corruption. This is ridiculous,” Leigh posted on X.
The mayor’s revenue plans could affect Illinois Gov. J.B.
Pritzker and members of his family.
Johnson has repeatedly pushed for progressive revenue and
provided an example of a progressive revenue stream he had in
mind.
“One of the things that we have been looking at has been the
PILOT program, the payment in lieu of taxes. Those are some
considerations that I believe that as a city we should look at,”
Johnson said.
Proctor said universities and churches could be included as
tax-exempt properties under a PILOT program.
Proctor said the mayor might also face resistance from people
Johnson refers to as “ultra-rich.”
“As he stated, he wants to go after millionaires and
billionaires. Well, we know where 14 of the billionaires are in
Illinois. They’re all last-named ‘Pritzker,’” Proctor said.
Chicago is facing a budget deficit of more than $1 billion. The
mayor said he would not propose a property tax increase in his
budget, but he did not say he would not sign a budget which
included property tax hikes.
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