(The Center Square) – Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is now weighing a plan that could slap an automatic fee on drivers traveling in the downtown area.
Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski is blasting the idea as just more of the same kind of policy he argues is largely responsible for the city’s wayward direction.
“It’s a crazy idea and Chicago increasingly becomes less competitive,” Dabrowski told The Center Square. “The commercial taxes are already the highest in the country and there’s a risk of a doom loop with its real estate problem. This would be just another excuse for companies and people not to come into the city.”
Johnson’s plan follows in the footsteps of one recently instituted in New York City and comes just days after a new Inrix study found that the city is tied with New York for having the second-worst traffic of any in the world, with the average Chicagoan spending 102 hours in traffic in 2024.
While supporters of the plan are pushing it as one aimed at reducing traffic congestion within the city, encouraging use of public transit and raising revenues, Dabrowski warned it only stands to make the city less attractive to residents and businesses alike.
“The city’s already getting more and more expensive,” he said. “People don’t feel they’re getting their value from their taxes and there’s other cities that are growing far more than Chicago. If you’re an investor looking to invest your money in a city, you’re going to go to places that are growing and that are affordable. Chicago is going the wrong way. It’s becoming more expensive and its services are getting worse.”
For all his issues with the idea, Dabrowski insisted he’s not surprised to see such a proposal.
“They’re desperate,” he said. “They know that they can’t do property taxes because people are fed up with that and we saw the Chicago mayor lose his $300 million proposal for property tax increases by 50 to 0. They just raised a whole bunch of other taxes in the city budget and they’re looking for money anywhere they can get money. Since it passed in New York, it becomes a viable idea.”
At the same time, Dabrowski said there’s more than a fair chance the tax wouldn’t even be what supporters are selling it as.
“They might choose one area of downtown but once it gets established they can then expand it to other areas of downtown,” he said. “This is the slippery slope of letting another tax come in. They’ll try to expand it. I think what Chicago needs to do and what the aldermen need to do is look at every law, every decision and ask, ‘does it attract more people and more businesses to Chicago.’”
As part of the Inrix study, researchers also found that Chicago is the third-most congested major city in the world and is home to five of the 10 most congested highways in the country.
