Windy City voters reject a property tax hike pushed by Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Chicago Teachers Union. | PHOTO: ERIN HOOLEY/ASSOCIATED PRESS
By The Editorial Board | Wall Street Journal
Maybe Chicago isn’t fated to a downward progressive spiral after all. On Tuesday voters shocked everyone by soundly rejecting a ballot referendum to raise the city’s real-estate transfer tax, despite active support by Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU).
Or perhaps the defeat was because of their support. Chicago residents voted 54% to 46% against the tax scheme with most votes counted. The result is all the more surprising because turnout in the primary was an unusually low 20%. Low turnout typically helps political machines like Chicago’s, which is why they scheduled the tax increase vote for March. They lost anyway.
The Bring Chicago Home referendum billed itself as a way to raise taxes on the wealthy to aid the homeless. But the measure ran into headwinds as the plan to raise the real-estate transfer tax to 2% on properties valued over $1 million and 3% on properties over $1.5 million would have hit many middle-class homeowners and small businesses.
The referendum was one of Mr. Johnson’s signature initiatives, but the mayor’s approval rating is in free fall. A January survey for the Illinois Policy Institute showed his job approval at 29%. It’s 24% on crime and 20% on homelessness. The voters who rejected Mr. Johnson’s tax hike are the same Chicagoans who voted 71% in favor of a failed tax increase proposed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in 2020.
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