Mayor Brandon Johnson presents budget plan without tax hikes or layoffs

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Mayor Brandon Johnson presented his first budget address on Wednesday, announcing he planned to close a projected $538 million budget gap without any tax hikes or layoffs.

With no end in sight to the city's migrant crisis, skepticism remains both within and outside of the City Council about Johnson's ability to pull it off.

The mayor's budget would add nearly 400 civilian positions to the Chicago Police Department, create 100 new detective positions, 440 "promotional opportunities," and boost the number of training officers. Johnson also wants to continue funding shelters and other services for migrants, while moving forward with key parts of his progressive agenda, giving aldermen a lot to unpack before voting on the budget plan next month.

Critics said the mayor didn't offer a lot of details in his budget address. It's now the City Council's job to evaluate Johnson's spending plan during a series of budget hearings, and possibly offer their own changes before voting.

"I want to underscore that we balanced this budget without increasing the City's base property tax," Johnson said.

Among the mayor's goals for next year are relaunching the Department of Environment eliminated by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2011, creating a new Department of Technology and Innovation, and adding $4.8 million for additional mental health services – including opening two of the six mental health clinics shuttered by Emanuel, though doing so in existing Chicago Department of Public Health facilities.

The mayor's plan left some on City Council, such as Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) to ask, "Where's the funding coming from to support that?"

Beale was one of many alderpeople giving the new mayor a tough grade.

"On Detail? I would give it C minus, because you're creating all these different programs, but you have to identify how you're going to pay for them," Beale said. "It's definitely lacking detail from one end to the other. It's a lot of pie in the sky, a lot of things that were said, but the devil is definitely in the details,"

Johnson's floor leader, Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th), who will be tasked with rounding up the votes to pass the mayor's spending plan, applauded the mayor for not seeking to raise taxes.

"That's the beautiful thing. This balanced budget is presented by going to a TIF surplus," Ramirez-Rosa said.

Specifically, Johnson is declaring a surplus of tax increment financing dollars totaling approximately $400 million, with $49.5 million of that going to the city's coffers, and the rest going to other government bodies, including the Chicago Public Schools.

But Johnson's reliance on that TIF surplus, as other mayors have done to balance the budget, faces criticism from government watchdog groups, because it's a one-time revenue bump.

"This is not a sustainable approach to the budget. The reliance on TIF money, that's not a renewable revenue source," said Ralph Martire, executive director of The Center For Tax & Budget Accountability.

On the police front, Johnson called for 398 sworn positions inside CPD to slide to positions open to civilians, allowing officers to be out on the street more.

But some cried fall on the lack of specifics on open positions that remain at CPD.

"I didn't hear anything about staffing, how you're going to meet the staffing needs of the city as we're down 1,500 officers. You have 1,500 vacancies. How are these going to be weeded out?" said Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd), former chair of the City Council Finance Committee.

Johnson said his budget also creates 100 additional detective positions, halfway to his campaign pledge of 200 new detectives at CPD.

"Even the 100 detectives, promoting detectives. Okay, now we're 100 more officers short on the street, but you're not talking about hiring police officers. So how do you backfill that?" Beale said.

On the migrant front, Johnson repeated his call for federal and state help to offset the $200 million cost to house them in 2024.

"More than 11,000 asylum seekers are in shelters under the city's care, with nearly 4,000 at our police districts and airports awaiting placement," Johnson said.

The mayor's handling of the migrant crisis also got tough reviews from his colleagues on council.

Waguespack said he believe Johnson is "fumbling through it right now."

"When you look at signing no-bid contracts, that's very problematic. It starts out at $29 million, with a very inauspicious company," Waguespack said of the mayor's contract with a private security firm to set up large winterized tent encampments for migrants to get them out of police stations.

The city has yet to announce where or when any of those tent camps would be built.

As for a specific grade on the mayor's first budget plan, Martire gave Johnson an incomplete, saying the mayor should be given more time to be judged on his handling of city finances. Martire said he appreciates the mayor is trying to gradually build his progressive world view into the budget.

"What he's trying to do is realize a number of the campaign promises that he made, and trying to deliver on them, and finding a fiscal condition that doesn't quite accommodate his vision," Martire said. "Give him more than one year in office. Give him a chance to deal with these things. I wouldn't say this is the worst first budget I have seen -- by a long shot."