(The Center Square) – Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has revised his corporate head tax proposal, but Republicans say the mayor should not be putting immigrants ahead of citizens.
The mayor revealed his new plan Tuesday after his earlier budget plans drew heavy opposition from aldermen. Johnson said the revised tax would extract resources from Chicago companies with more than 500 employees.
“We would raise the rate per month to $33 on roughly 175 companies, which we project would raise roughly $82 million,” Johnson said.
Chicago Budget Director Annette Guzman said the revised budget would no longer provide small business grants.
Chicago City Council Finance Committee Chair Pat Dowell said in an email to constituents Tuesday morning that the administration’s earlier $21-per-employee head tax would be a “proven job killer” and would send “a harmful message” that Chicago does not value or welcome business investment.
Dowell said she and her colleagues are advocating for a budget that reflects the priorities of their voters.
“From the beginning, we have been open to discussion and negotiation and remain committed to governing in good faith. In stark contrast to that approach, no other administration has relied on such public bullying,” Dowell said.
After revealing the new $33-per-worker tax, the mayor said it is up to the city council to respond.
“It is their responsibility at this point to give me some feedback and to ultimately pass this budget,” Johnson said.
The city council is required by law to pass a budget before the end of the year. If a budget is not passed by Dec. 31, government programs might be interrupted, workers might not be paid and the city’s bond rating could suffer.
The mayor said he is working overtime to get a budget passed but said he is also having conversations about the “worst-case scenario.”
On Monday, the mayor said the head tax was not “a punishment for having workers” and reiterated that he remained open to alternative forms of “progressive revenue.”
In addition to the head tax, Johnson’s more than $16 billion spending plan also includes an increased cloud tax, a tax on social media and new taxes on sports betting and boat mooring.
Chicago Flips Red also held a press conference at City Hall Tuesday and announced its opposition to the mayor’s budget. The group’s founder, Zoe Leigh, said city officials have catered to people who are in the country illegally.
“The Democratic Party has made sure that Black Americans, Black Chicagoans have been at the bottom like a caste system, and they have literally brought in other countries and made then the middle class that we are paying for,” Leigh said.
Chicago Flips Red Vice President Danielle Carter-Walters said progressives in city government want citizens to pay for immigrants who are in the country illegally.
“The people of Chicago are not a bank for the world’s problems. We are not an ATM to fund services for people who have no legal right to be here. Our tax dollars are meant to protect us, to provide for our families, to make our neighborhoods safe, but instead they are being spent on people who have no right to benefit from our hard work,” Carter-Walters said.
Leigh and Carter-Walters also called out the mayor for giving himself, his department heads and other city officials “executive raises.”
The city council is scheduled to meet Wednesday at 10:00 a.m.
