CHICAGO (WLS) — Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is still fighting to get a budget deal.
Two weeks from 2025 and still no official budget plan in place for the city of Chicago.
ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch
Two weeks from 2025 and still no official budget plan in place for the city of Chicago.
“It would be unprecedented and a complete failure of leadership to miss that deadline now,” Alderman Ray Lopez said.
Mayor Brandon Johnson is aiming to get enough support on Monday to pass the latest version of the proposal. The updated plan reportedly no longer includes a property tax hike and extends the deadline for paying off $40 million in debt.
Late Sunday night, though, Alderman Ray Lopez and 14 other council members… released a letter with their own proposed changes to the budget.
The proposed cuts amount to $823 million and involve eliminating expenses such as the Office of Vice Mayor, various services like those provided by the city treasurer and city clerk, as well as non-teacher pension payments for the Chicago Teachers Union.
Alderman Lopez expressed his disapproval stating, “Replacing a $68 million property tax increase with a $40 million loan, adding more debt, is not acceptable.”
Sixth ward Aldermen William Hall has been part of the administration’s budget meetings all weekend. He believes the mayor’s latest proposal is exactly what Chicagoans want.
“What we wanted was zero property taxes,” Alderman Hall said. “We got that. What we wanted was a more leaner Chicago. We got that. Participatory budgeting, though it is different, this is the way to the future we have to let voices be at the table.”
Political observers are less than confident Monday’s meeting will even reach a vote.
“In one respect it looks like dysfunction,” David Greising of the Better Government Association said. “In another respect it looks like healthy back and forth between the legislative body the City Council and the chief executive of the city, the mayor. The trouble is the mayor and his team seem ill-prepared for this. Whereas council seems pretty well prepared.”
The meeting begins at 1 p.m. If a proposal isn’t approved by December 31, the city faces a government shutdown.
Copyright © 2024 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.
