Mayor Johnson determined to avert city government shutdown as budget stalemate drags on

After another weekend of failed budget negotiations, Mayor Brandon Johnson said Monday he is open to negotiating details of his already rejected proposed corporate head tax in hopes of averting an unprecedented city government shutdown that he says “benefits nobody.”

Following a City Hall news conference in which Johnson appeared to dig in his heels, top mayoral aides began gauging City Council support for a revised head tax that raises the proposed amount of $21 a month per employee to $33, and imposes that tax on companies with 500 or more employees instead of the threshold of 100 workers that Johnson initially proposed. The revised tax with the new threshold would raise $82 million a year, the mayor's office said.

To avert a city government shutdown, the Council must approve a budget by the end of the year. Johnson said the last time Chicago came this close to a government shutdown was 1984 during the infamous power struggle that saw 29 mostly white alderpersons led by Edward Vrdolyak and Edward Burke thwart Mayor Harold Washington’s every move.

The so-called “Vrdolyak 29” stood toe-to-toe with Washington, rejecting the mayor’s spending plan, substituting a budget of their own and attempting to override Washington’s veto before as Johnson put it, “striking a deal hours before the deadline.”

Johnson said he doesn’t want history to repeat itself.

“A shutdown benefits nobody, least of all the working people of Chicago who rely on the critical services the city provides,” Johnson said. “We will… do everything in our power to prevent a government shutdown."

Last week, the Johnson administration delivered a pointed rebuttal to higher taxes and fees for garbage collection, off-premise liquor sales and rides on Uber and Lyft proposed by a City Council majority determined to avoid the mayor’s proposed corporate head tax.

That was followed by a three-hour long Saturday negotiating session with 16 of those dissenters that went nowhere.

Former Finance Committee Chair Scott Waguespack (32nd), a leader of the opposition group, accused the mayor of using “finger-pointing, lies and insults” to attack those who have “dared to call out the dangerous flaws” in his budget that would “push Chicago off a financial cliff.”

Waguespack said Chicago can’t afford a head tax in any form. Dissenting aldermen also oppose shorting pensions and borrowing $449 million for firefighter back pay and large settlements tied to allegations of police wrongdoing.

“We will not be bullied, or back down from doing what is right for the residents, families and businesses of Chicago,” Waguespack said.

If Johnson refuses to meet their conditions, Waguespack said dissenting alderpersons will have no choice but to move forward without the mayor.

“What we won’t do is allow this mayor to take a page out of the Trump playbook and push or bully us into the threat of a government shutdown,” Waguespack said.

Johnson has threatened to veto a budget that includes any increase in the $9.50 a month garbage collection fee that has been frozen since its 2015 inception. On Monday, the mayor tried to call the bluff of dissenting alderpersons who support a higher garbage fee.

“We don’t know that they have 26 votes cause nothing’s been voted on. So, I’m saying put it on the board. Let’s see. Do people actually want to vote on doubling the garbage fee?” Johnson said. “If City Council members want to double the garbage fees in Englewood, Roseland and Austin, then they should put it on the board and vote for it.”

Johnson said he still favors the head tax that has been rejected by the City Council’s Finance Committee and condemned as a "job killer" by Gov. JB Pritzker and business leaders.

“It’s well past time that these super, super large corporations put more skin in the game and the people of Chicago overwhelmingly support that idea,” the mayor said. “We’re going to stand up for working people and our values or we’re going to crumble under pressure from corporate interests.”

Johnson poked holes in the job-killer argument with a bit of history about a corporate head tax imposed by then-Mayor Richard J. Daley in 1973 and phased out by then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2014.

“Think about Chicago from 1973 to 2014. Can you look outside these windows and see evidence of job-killing and people being whacked?” Johnson said.

“When it went away, there is no empirical evidence that it made us more competitive. In fact when it went away, guess what came in its place? Three consecutive years of property tax increases, fines and fees. Over $500 million," Johnson added. "There’s more evidence that with this revenue stream going away, working people had to do more… If anybody’s gotten whacked, it’s been working people in this city.”

Also on Monday, Johnson said former Ald. Walter Burnett (27th), the City Council's retired dean and former Zoning Committee Chair, remains his choice to run the Chicago Housing Authority even though the CHA Board opposes Burnett, and the Trump-led U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has refused to grant the waiver that Burnett needs to avoid potential conflicts of interest.