Why Chicago's Budget Crisis Matters for the City's Mayoral Race

In May, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s (D) Chicago Financial Future Task Force published its final report providing recommendations on how to solve the city’s persistent revenue imbalance. The recommendations include expanding the sales tax to services (a misguided effort to raise revenue), acquiring the authority to impose a graduated income tax, imposing congestion pricing, and adjusting property taxes according to inflation. While the task force might look like the budget fight is just getting started, in reality, it never actually ended.

The tensions between the mayor and the Chicago City Council stem from last year’s contentious budget cycle. After the mayor submitted his proposed budget, which included a corporate head tax, the city council formed a counterweight and assembled an alternative budget of their own, which excluded the head tax. With the mayor losing support in the city council, the alternative budget was passed. Instead of vetoing it, the mayor allowed the budget to take effect without his signature.  

The effects of last year’s budget fight can be felt. For starters, some alternative revenue streams that the city council included in the budget, like the plan to sell off city-owned debt, have failed to collect any funds. The plan to sell off debt originated from the Council, but opponents of the mayor, such as the Budget Accountability Coalition blame him for failing to execute the budget’s provisions: “Instead of executing the financially sound budget that City Council passed last year, Mayor Johnson and his administration have spent six months slow-walking the implementation of new revenues.” For his part, Mayor Johnson on August 25 announced his plan to plug the current $85 million budget gap, and, according to one headline, “blasts” the Council supported plan.

The fiscal hurdles will likely continue into the next year where the task force estimates that the city will face a budget gap of $680 million. Additionally, Mayor Johnson appointed Ashlee Gabrysch as the city’s new Chief Financial Officer after the departure of Steven Mahr. This follows the city’s Budget Director Annette Guzman announcing her departure as well.

The mayor has until October 15 to submit his proposed budget. It remains to be seen whether this budget fight will be Johnson’s last. The mayor has not publicly announced whether he will run again. A recent poll concluded that the mayor’s approval rating sits at 23 percent. If Mayor Johnson does not run again, the City Council may be less interested in cooperating.

As of now there are nine announced Mayoral candidates including Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias (D). While who will be the next mayor is unclear, what’s abundantly clear is that City’s fiscal problems are unlikely to be fully resolved before the next election.