Mayor Johnson calls off Friday's Chicago city budget vote
CHICAGO (CBS) — Mayor Brandon Johnson has called off Friday's 2025 city budget vote.
Sources told CBS News Chicago Johnson didn't have enough votes to pass the budget.
A fiery exchange took place among alderman and yelling could be heard from the gallery at the City Council meeting. Once the order was restored, a vote was taken to recess it all until Monday at 1 p.m.
Johnson quickly left the podium and headed out the door.
The city needs a budget by the end of the year or it could result in a city shutdown.
With the deadline fast approaching, sticking points remain unresolved. Mayor Brandon Johnson has taken his $300 million property tax hike pitch down to $68.5 million—but some aldermen say this is still too high.
The mayor wants no job cuts and a property tax hike. Many alderpeople said job cuts are needed, as are cuts to city department budgets, before any tax hikes would get the green light.
In addition to the property tax hike, the Johnson administration is proposing tax hikes on cable and streaming services to generate $13 million in new dollars, $11 million from a heightened city garage tax, a new ride-hailing tax to make the city $8.1 million more, and just over $5 million more from a heightened checkout bag tax.
The mayor needs half of the City Council plus one—26 alders—to go along with the plan.
While alders earlier this week appeared split on whether a budget deal will be approved by the end of this week, as the mayor hopes, they seemed to agree the city will not get to the point of missing the Dec. 31 deadline and facing a shutdown.
This is a developing story. CBS News Chicago will continue to provide updates as new information is available.
