Over half of that would go to pensions and debt service.
By Ethan Soifer | Illinois Policy Institute
Mayor Brandon Johnson wants to increase spending by more than $665 million next year, with over half of that going to debt service and pension contributions.
That would continue a historic trend of pensions and debt consuming much of the increases in Chicago budgets, hurting residents who are forced to pay more in taxes but don’t get more in services. Since 2019, just under 40% of new spending has gone to increases in pension contributions and debt service.
Johnson proposed the new spending despite the city facing a deficit of $882.4 million next year. The mayor wants to close that gap in part with almost $427 million in new taxes and fees.
Those include a previously rejected corporate head tax and a sharp increase in the personal property lease transaction tax including on cloud computing and software. Both proposals would make it more costly for businesses to operate in the city.
A head tax was pre-emptively rejected by 29 aldermen — a majority of the City Council — before Johnson released his budget proposal. They demanded that the mayor “reduce the recurring cost of city government before asking anyone to pay more.”
Also, 28 aldermen have now rejected the proposed 33% hike in the personal property lease transaction tax. A two-year freeze on increasing that tax was put into in last year’s budget.
In their Nov. 10 letter, those 28 aldermen also rejected any new spending increases in the budget, calling it “unfathomable” to grow spending in the middle of an $882 million budget deficit.
Report continues here.
