IL comptroller: Chicago mayor’s policies chase businesses away
[December 18, 2025]
By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza says Chicago
is chasing job creators away with crippling policies.
Citadel moved 900 workers from Chicago to Miami in 2022, and the
financial firm is now expected to leave its former Citadel Center
headquarters in a downtown skyscraper for a smaller space a outside the
Loop.
Chicago’s downtown office vacancy rate has surged in recent years and
reached a record-high of 28% last month.
Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza says the city’s most crippling
policies are the ones that chase job creators away.
“I think that rather than punish our business community for creating
jobs which are necessary for people’s quality of life, we should be
partnering with our business community and not creating policies that,
frankly, chase them away pretty quickly,” Mendoza told The Center
Square.
Peak6 Investments moved its corporate headquarters from Chicago to
Austin, TX in January 2025.
Boeing, Caterpillar, Morton Salt, TTX and Tyson Foods, among others,
announced their departures from Illinois in recent years.
In a social media post last week, Mendoza said hundreds of millions of
dollars in tax revenue left Illinois when Citadel owner Ken Griffin and
900 of his employees left Chicago for Miami three years ago.
Citadel’s latest reported plans come as Mayor Brandon Johnson and
Chicago City Council members wrangle over competing budget proposals.
Last week, Johnson revised his corporate head tax to impact businesses
with more than 500 employees instead of those with more than 100. He
also raised the monthly tax from $21 per worker to $33.
Mendoza expressed her disapproval of taxing businesses for hiring
workers.
“Obviously, I’m strongly opposed to that because it does chase our job
creators out of Chicago,” the state comptroller said.
The mayor’s more than $16 billion spending plan also includes an
increased cloud tax, a tax on social media and taxes on sports betting
and boat mooring.
A group of aldermen passed an alternative tax and revenue package
through the city council’s finance committee Tuesday. It remains unclear
if the group has enough votes to pass its own budget and override a
potential Johnson veto.
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Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza attends an event. Photo: Greg
Bishop / The Center Square
Mendoza took note of the city’s refusal to make cuts under the current
mayor.
“There is no reason why this city should be moving forward with a budget
that is 60% larger than it was in 2019, pre-pandemic,” Mendoza said.
Although much of the opposition to Johnson’s budget plan has focused on
the corporate head tax, Mendoza said there is also a big problem with
the mayor’s plan for tax increment financing dollars.
The mayor’s budget would sweep about $1 billion of TIF money into
Chicago Public Schools.
Citing a community on the city’s South Side, Mendoza said TIF dollars
are intended to revitalize neighborhoods.
“Englewood is a perfect example, because they leveraged $10 million
worth of TIF to create $50 million in economic development,” Mendoza
explained.
The comptroller said Johnson’s short-term fixes will critically damage
the city’s potential for economic development.
“That means that neighborhoods that are traditionally underserved, that
don’t have anything but vacant lots going for them, are going to
continue to stay depressed for decades to come,” Mendoza said.
The comptroller said once a TIF dollar is spent, it can never be spent
again.
“That’s a real shame to these communities who are desperate for economic
development,” Mendoza said.
The comptroller said that if Chicago continues to receive credit
downgrades, it would ultimately affect state revenues.
Mendoza, who is not seeking reelection to comptroller in 2026, said she
is seriously considering a run for mayor of Chicago. The comptroller
said she would keep talking about issues affecting the city even if she
doesn’t run, because they impact her current job and trying to leverage
every taxpayer dollar to its maximum impact.
Glenn Minnis contributed to this story.
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