Chicago City Council set to vote on fourth attempt at 2025 budget
CHICAGO (CBS) -- One by one, several Chicago alderpeople delivered lengthy speeches in opposition to Mayor Brandon Johnson's fourth 2025 budget proposal ahead of a vote late Monday afternoon.
On Friday, Johnson called off his effort to pass his revised budget plan before debate could begin, after failing to get enough support for his latest proposal, which relies on a property tax hike, other tax increases, and minimal cuts.
The mayor recessed the City Council meeting until Monday, prompting shouts from the gallery as the meeting came to an end before the traditional public comment period of the meeting.
Over the weekend, sources told CBS News Chicago that Mayor Johnson dropped plans to seek a $68.5 million property tax hike.
Mayor Johnson started with a $300 million property tax hike proposal that the City Council voted down unanimously. He then cut the property tax increase in half, then to $68 million, and finally to zero.
Still, Ald. Marty Quinn (13th) said he would not support the budget plan—on the grounds that even without a property tax hike, the latest budget proposal still failed to make cuts to such things as redundant positions. Instead, Quinn said, the budget is full of nickel-and-dime measures affecting taxpayers.
"We will be right back here again next year," Quinn said.
Quinn also said residents of his Southwest Side ward do not believe Mayor Johnson supports them—particularly when it comes to calls for a new police district in that aera.
Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) also spoke in opposition to the budget, saying it does not reflect the needs of his community—and like Quinn, taking issue with the fact that it involves fines and fees that will affect the average Chicagoan.
"The people have said clearly that we want cuts and efficiencies. Cuts and efficiencies are what the people have been asking for," Beale said. "But no! We want to ignore what the people are saying."
Beale also said those who are calling for cuts have been misrepresented as calling for cuts to police officers or city services.
"We have to stop this trainwreck," Beale said. "We have to stop this spending."
Echoing his colleagues, Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) said the mayor's proposed property tax increase was not defeated, but only delayed—because the city has a structural deficit that only keeps growing.
Ald. Nicole Lee (11th), the vice chair of the City Council Budget Committee, also said she would not support the "deeply flawed" budget proposal. She said it amounted to kicking the can down the road with no structural solutions to address the deficit.
Meanwhile, Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) called the budget a fair compromise. As to those taking the mayor to task for tax increases, Sigcho-Lopez noted that a property tax increase was approved under Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and also mentioning the privatization of the city's parking meters under Mayor Richard M. Daley.
Sigcho-Lopez also said Chicago is in the crosshairs of the incoming administration of President-elect Trump—in the form of both the administration's mass-deportation plan and cuts to federal funding.
Ald. Maria Hadden (49th) took Mayor Johnson's administration to task for delaying the process of approving a budget and ignoring or rebuffing those who criticized the mayor's plan.
Hadden said the majority of the City Council Progressive Caucus, which she co-chairs, would vote in favor of the budget. But she said Mayor Johnson's handling of the budget has resulted in the fracturing of the City Council, has left the people of Chicago less trusting in city government, and represented "an utter disregard for people's time."
Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th) also echoed the critics, saying the budget process has left many Chicagoans less trusting of, and less confident in, their government. He said the Johnson administration had failed to work with the State of Illinois to find efficiencies, and also took the administration to task for "advocating for a publicly-funded private stadium" for the Chicago Bears.
Vasquez said he supports "robust city services" that require revenue, but the need for efficiencies cannot be neglected. He said the budget would pass to avert a city government shutdown, but repeatedly expressed disappointment with the mayor and his handling of it.
"Chicagoans don't have any more time for excuses, for hollow, evasive answers, and for obliviousness from their mayor," he said.
Ald. Ray Lopez (15th) said a proposal that he and 14 other colleagues had spearheaded a call for the reduction of the city's corporate fund back to pre-COVID levels—which he said would have reduced the budget by $568 million—were ignored by the Johnson administration.
He said there could have bene discussions about what all the city's 50 wards wanted, and how various city departments could justify why they needed more revenue—but no such discussions ever happened.
Instead, Lopez said, aldermen got a stack of amendments to the budget at 1 a.m. Monday with no time to review them properly.
Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) gave credit to his colleagues for helping trim the budget so a property tax hike is no longer on the table. But like his colleagues, he said the city's structural deficit would result in a "whopper" of a property tax hike in the future.
Reilly criticized Mayor Johnson's budget proposal by achieving savings by reconfiguring savings projections and recalculating revenue projections—which he said does nothing to address the city's long-term deficit issues.
Reilly also took issue with the group of 15 alders who sought to balance the budget with deep cuts being characterized as MAGA conservatives—or being compared to the "Vrdolyak 29," the nearly all-white bloc of aldermen that stymied the agenda of Mayor Harold Washington, Chicago's first Black mayor, 40 years ago. Reilly noted that the group of critics of the mayor's budget represented every racial demographic and included men and women.
"To try and make this a racial thing or a classist thing, or a corporate billionaire thing, is baloney," Reilly said.
Moreover, Reilly also said all the critics' suggestions were ignored.
After Reilly spoke, Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) defended Mayor Johnson and his budget. Ramirez-Rosa said the budget is fiscally responsible and does contain efficiencies—and argued also that the budget invests in the future with a pension advance.
Ald. Jim Gardiner (45th) took Mayor Johnson directly to task—saying he had always offered and tried to work with the mayor, but Johnson had failed to reciprocate.
"What I can't respect is your continuing to disrespect me, because when you disrespect me, you're disrespecting the 55,000 people that I represent," said Gardiner.
In part for that reason, Gardiner said, he is against the budget proposal.
Ald. Emma Mitts (37th) said the people of her West Side ward need help—but alders' attention is being taken away from their wards by the dragging out of the budget process.
"We need to stop playing games down here," Mitts said.
However, Mitts said she would vote for the budget—leading to groans of disappointment from the gallery.
Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th) called for a city charter that would create a position of a speaker or president of the City Council as New York City and other major U.S. cities have.
In New York, the mayor proposes a preliminary budget, the City Council provides a budget response presented by the City Council speaker and finance chair, and the mayor follows up with an executive budget that takes into account the City Council response. The mayor and the City Council then negotiate agreements to the executive budget—resulting in a final deal known as an adopted budget.
This is in contrast to Chicago, where the City Council simply votes on a budget proposed by the mayor.
Sources earlier said one new element of the latest budget deal includes the city cracking down on major sports teams and other venues in Chicago to reimburse the city for police overtime costs for special events. That would bring in an estimated $10 million for the city.
The city spent $22.6 million on police overtime for special events this year but has only been reimbursed $2 million, leaving taxpayers to cover the remaining costs.
City law requires special event producers to pay for police services beyond 12 shifts. However, an investigation by Block Club Chicago and CBS Chicago revealed through records requests that the city has not been retroactively charging for those costs.
In 2024, the police department spent $22.6 million on special event overtime across various music, street, and neighborhood festivals. About $7.2 million of that is attributed to ticketed events like Lollapalooza, the Chicago Marathon, and NASCAR. However, the city has only been reimbursed for Lollapalooza and the Chase Corporate Challenge, totaling just under $2 million, police officials disclosed last month.
In addition to seeking the money the city is owed for police overtime for special events, sources said the mayor's new budget plan would save $40 million by delaying payment of a debt that had been due in its entirety this year, freeing up that money for 2025.
Instead, the city will "amortize" that debt, costing an additional $2 million in the long-run, according to Crain's Chicago Business. The debt had been tied to the city's purchase of the old Michael Reese Hospital site under former Mayor Richard M. Daley as part of his failed bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.
The mayor needs 26 votes out of the 50 alders to pass the budget.
Mayor Johnson clears public from City Council chambers after disruption
Before the alderpeople gave their speeches, activists clashed in the spectator gallery and several people were escorted away.
Some activists held signs expressing pro-immigrant messages attacking President-elect Donald Trump's immigration czar Tom Homan. One sign read: "No more roundups & no more hatred, f**k your wall & f**k your borders, God-damn you Tom "put children in cages" Homan, immigrants are human beings," with the social media accounts for the Revolutionary Communist Party printed at the bottom of the sign.
The people holding the signs exchanged words with members of the pro-Trump group Flip Chicago Red, who cheered as the anti-Trump protesters were escorted out one by one.
Ultimately, Mayor Brandon Johnson called a recess and asked the sergeant-at-arms to clear all the members of the public from City Council Chambers. He said the meeting would stand in recess until that happened.
The City Council meeting resumed after the gallery was cleared. The gallery was later reopened, and Mayor Johnson warned it could be cleared again as people groaned and jeered at some alders who said they would be voting in favor of the budget plan.
