Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has accused aldermen of insincerity in budget negotiations, drawing a rebuttal from members of the City Council. A group of 28 aldermen opposes Johnson’s proposed tax based on the number of workers a company employs, known as the corporate head tax.
The aldermen argue the tax could prompt businesses to leave Chicago and lead to job losses. Chicago must pass a budget by Dec. 31 to avoid a potential shutdown of city government, and the tax remains the main point of contention. Mayor Brandon Johnson says that aldermen who have accused his office of failing to communicate with them “are not telling the truth.” He made the remarks in an interview with Brandon Pope, a reporter and political editor at Fox.
Now some aldermen are responding to those words. The mayor’s office shared with Fox Chicago screenshots of calls and text messages sent to Ald. Samantha Nugent of the 39th Ward, which, according to the materials, went unanswered. Johnson’s office also said the alderman had told a member of the mayor’s team to stop calling her office. In an interview with Fox Chicago, Nugent rejected the allegations. “The suggestion that we haven’t been in contact with the mayor’s staff is simply absurd,” Nugent said. “We see them every day at City Hall, we talk, but until the mayor presents a responsible and well-thought-out budget proposal, the situation remains what it is,” she added.
Ald. Anthony Beale of the 9th Ward, meanwhile, says he has not had a single one-on-one meeting with Johnson since the mayor took office. “If we’re talking about insincerity, it’s worth noting that I have served for 28 years and have met with every mayor on substantive issues, except the current one,” Beale said. “If the mayor accuses others of dishonesty, he should look in the mirror and consider who is really being dishonest,” the alderman said.
A key element of the mayor’s proposed budget is a tax based on the number of workers a company employs, which he himself calls the “Equitable Employer Tax.” Under the proposal, companies employing 125 people would have to pay $25 per month for each employee. Businesses employing people who do their work mainly in designated socioeconomically disadvantaged areas on the city’s South and West sides would be exempt from the tax.
“Asking them to contribute a little more, to invest in housing and efforts to combat homelessness, in youth employment and in proven strategies that effectively reduce violence, is, in my view, a reasonable expectation,” Johnson said in an interview with Fox Chicago. On Tuesday, 28 aldermen sent Johnson a letter stating that they would not support a budget that imposes a tax on businesses. In their view, such a measure “destroys jobs” and could lead to an exodus of companies from the city. “We are always ready to sit down and work together,” Beale said.
Chicago must pass a budget by Dec. 31 to avoid a shutdown of city government. Key services such as the police and fire departments would continue to operate, but the fate of other city employees could be called into question.
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Source: Polski.FM
