Chicago will have to choose between three difficult options without an infusion of state and federal money to help with the migrant crisis: midyear budget cuts and layoffs; draining reserves in a raid which could endanger the city’s bond rating; or raising property taxes.
Mayor Brandon Johnson will cross that bridge when he comes to it. For now, he’ll celebrate victory in what is the most important City Council vote of the year.
Johnson’s $16.77 billion budget is poised to sail through the City Council on Wednesday despite earmarking only $150 million for asylum-seekers.
“That won’t even get you through the first quarter. We’re spending about $40 million a month right now. It’s not a balanced budget,” said Ald. Anthony Beale (9th), who plans to cast one of about a dozen expected “no” votes.
Ald. Ray Lopez (15th), another “no” vote, accuses Johnson of “using one-time revenues to avoid making any of the tough choices that need to be made” on spending and revenue.
“One-time revenues and debt are exactly that — one-time. Which means he’s got three more budgets of pain that will come after that. If he’s not willing to use this moment to lead, then he is squandering an opportunity to right the financial ship,” Lopez said.
Johnson has acknowledged $150 million is not enough to care for migrants, but is using that lowball figure to strengthen the case for more state and federal funding.
The Civic Federation has urged the city to draft a contingency plan to bankroll the migrant crisis and find “additional stable revenue sources” to support a $35.4 billion pension crisis already gobbling up 23% of net appropriations.
That suggestion was ignored.
The situation has been made worse by the smaller-than-expected early jackpot from Bally’s temporary casino and Johnson’s decision to grant 3% cost-of-living increases to all retired Chicago police officers. That increased 2024 pension costs by $60 million. The higher tab will be paid for by reducing the $306.6 million Johnson has earmarked in his first budget for a pension advance that exceeds Chicago’s statutory requirement.
Johnson’s new playbook
For years, Chicago mayors have used the budget after their first election to lower the boom on taxpayers, hoping voters forget by the time they return to the polls.
Johnson rewrote that familiar playbook. He used $786.5 million in one-time revenues to balance his first budget and punted the search for new revenue to a City Council subcommittee.
“He is a collaborator at heart and at his core. He comes from an organizing background. Having more voices at the table about the best way to produce more revenue for the city ... is how he goes about bringing consensus,” Budget Director Annette Guzman has told the Sun-Times.
With no property tax increase and none of the $800 million in tax increases Johnson advocated during his mayoral campaign, the outcome of Wednesday’s budget vote isn’t in doubt — only the margin of victory.
Johnson is making the vote even easier with amendments designed to appease the City Council in general and a Black Caucus angered by the migrant crisis in particular:
• A fourth full-time staffer for each of the 50 alderpersons instead of having staffers paid through aldermanic expense accounts.
• $500,000 to begin studying the long-standing demand that Chicago find a way to pay reparations to its descendants of slaves.
• $5 million to create a four-employee “Office of Re-Entry” to support, counsel, train, house and employ ex-offenders.
Although the changes are more symbolic than costly, Johnson trumpets all of them, particularly supporting the “unique needs of the formerly incarcerated.”
“This has been a long-term demand for years. And only in this administration is this investment being made. When I said take care of everyone in Chicago, I mean it,” he said.
“These are the first dollars spent in this city to actually begin the process of studying both restoration and reparations. When residents who have experienced neglect and disinvestment for generations speak out of their pain and their trauma, this administration and the Black Caucus — we hear you.”
Mayor expects patience on keeping his promises
Even before those eleventh-hour changes, the budget included what Johnson has proudly called a “down payment” on his ambitious plan to make $1 billion in “investments in people.”
Chicago will open two mental health clinics (in existing buildings to cut costs), double staff for an alternate response program to mental health emergencies, add 4,000 more summer jobs for young people, and create a new city Department of Innovation and Technology and a revived,14-employee Department of Environment that is not empowered to enforce pollution laws.
Johnson spent the mayoral campaign distancing himself from his history of supporting the concept of defunding the police and denying he planned to cut “one penny” from the Chicago Police Department’s budget.
True to his word, his first budget increases police department spending by 2.9% — to $1.99 billion — to cover the cost of his recent decision to sweeten the last two years of a police contract signed by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot and give each sworn officer a $2,500 retention bonus.
The Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability calls the police department budget a “definite improvement,” citing 100 new detectives, 100 more sergeants, 170 more field training officers and the 400 new civilian positions that will free police officers to “do what they were trained to do to reduce violence and solve crimes.”
But the civilian oversight panel still has “major concerns” the 2024 police budget does not address, including workforce allocation, community policing and police response times.
“CPD needs to do a better job of placing officers in the right places at the right times and keeping them there long enough to actually build relationships with the neighborhoods they serve. This budget doesn’t tell us how the department plans to do this or lower how long it takes for police to respond when Chicagoans call for help,” commission president Anthony Driver Jr. wrote in a letter to the City Council.
“This is a problem that especially impacts Black and Brown neighborhoods, further eroding community trust and confidence in our system of policing.”
The panel also pushed for the police department to move more quickly to purchase helicopters, improve “abysmal physical spaces … in desperate need of an overhaul” to improve officer wellness and morale and be more “transparent” about the true cost of policing in Chicago.
Although his first budget makes only a dent in his ambitious campaign promises, Johnson believes his progressive base will be realistic about how long it will take to right historic wrongs — and will be patient with his slow but steady progress.
“This is not a zero-sum game. We will invest in people and provide for every single Chicagoan. We also committed $100 million in community violence intervention to address the trauma felt by those impacted by violence. We are supporting the unhoused. We are working to right the wrongs of the past,” the mayor said last week.
“These are more than just dollar amounts. They represent a commitment to serving our communities and addressing the social and economic disparities that are holding Chicagoans back, particularly those in the Black community. We are making critical investments in these communities. ... In the years ahead, we will double down on our commitment to young people, affordable housing, community safety and workers’ rights.”
