Mayor Brandon Johnson pledges no push for property tax hike after CFO recently called one ‘likely'

Chicago Tribune

2 days ago

Mayor Brandon Johnson is now ruling out seeking a property tax hike in his upcoming budget proposal, an apparent shift in course for his administration after a top city official said earlier in the week that they probably would do so.
On Friday, Johnson said he will instead try again to tax the city's wealthiest residents and corporations. He added that he has 'a number' of ideas for progressive revenue, but did not answer when asked to share them.
'The ultra-rich in this city and this state have an opportunity to do a better job in investing in our infrastructure, investing in community safety,' he said.
Johnson told the Tribune that 'nothing has changed' when asked about the apparent abrupt switch-up during a news conference.
The mayor's attempts to raise property taxes to balance this year's budget were roundly rejected by aldermen. But he said he isn't turning away from property taxes to close the 2026 budget hole because he's worried he doesn't have the votes.
'We've always made it very clear from the very beginning that we are going to invest in people and use progressive revenue to ensure that we build the safest, most affordable big city in America,' he said.
Just Tuesday, Chicago's Chief Financial Officer Jill Jaworski said 'it is likely that that will be part of the package' when asked about the mayor calling for a 2026 property tax increase.
But the mayor delivered a clear rejection of the idea Thursday.
'I will not be proposing a property tax increase in my budget. I'm going to continue to work hard to find progressive revenue,' he told ABC-7 Chicago.
The mayor similarly did not specify Thursday to ABC-7 what new taxes and other revenue-raisers he hopes to rely on to balance the city's budget. He also said it was too early to discuss potential furloughs and layoffs, adding 'our workforce is what makes our city strong.'
The 2026 budget fight will begin in earnest after Labor Day.
Johnson, who campaigned promising to not raise property taxes, proposed last year that the city raise them by $300 million to help close a budget gap near $1 billion. Aldermen rejected the plan in an unprecedented 50-0 vote.
The mayor's administration then tried to negotiate several smaller property tax hikes with aldermen, but was rejected each time. The City Council's decision, alongside Johnson's opposition to city service and workforce cuts, resulted in a compromise to balance the budget with a fleet of smaller taxes and fees.
The largest was a roughly $130 million hike to the personal property lease tax on cloud computing services, a move that affected software services, including many that businesses rely upon.
Johnson notably failed in an earlier effort to tax the rich in 2023 when the 'Bring Chicago Home' plan lost in a citywide referendum. The proposal would have hiked taxes on real estate transfers over $1 million to raise money to pay for homelessness services.
Many aldermen fear the sort of kitchen-sink approach they used to land the budget last year will be harder to use this year. Several easier-to-tap options have been exhausted, and the city's fiscal challenges have only grown as federal funding cuts threaten the city's already precarious financial position.
Johnson's top budget officials have long described property taxes as an effective way to bring in predictable, long-term revenue and stabilize the city's budget.
But in ruling out property taxes as part of the package this fall, the mayor may very well have sensed a trial balloon had popped after several aldermen quickly criticized the idea this week.