If nothing else, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s budget address Wednesday shows what happens when lofty campaign promises meet the reality of governance.
Johnson’s proposed $16.6 billion budget still promises goodies without raising property taxes, but gone for now is his campaign pledge to fund “investments in people” with $800 million in new and higher taxes — a promise that was unpopular with the business community and some rank-and-file taxpayers and consumers who feared the cost of new taxes would be passed down to them.
That said, there are a lot of things to potentially like in Johnson’s first budget as mayor. But more than a few items raise questions.
First, a few examples of the good.
Johnson’s budget promises no property tax increases, which should bring a measure of relief to homeowners who are rocked now by higher prices for groceries, utilities and other items.
Also, the budget promises $1.8 million to reestablish the Department of the Environment. The agency was axed under Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and Mayor Lori Lightfoot — who certainly could have benefited from such a department, given the environmental missteps her administration made — refused to revive it. This is a smart move on Johnson’s part, one that this editorial board has endorsed.
Another wise step is Johnson’s $43 million for mental health services, which includes opening two new clinics.
Emanuel closed six of the city’s 12 clinics in a budget-balancing attempt. Bringing two online now can potentially help city efforts to provide more mental health treatment before a situation escalates and results in a police response. Even so, we want to see the results of a promised independent evaluation of the city’s efforts to create a “network of care” by partnering with existing clinics in each of 77 neighborhoods. Where has the effort failed or succeeded? That’s important information the city should have before it makes more decisions about clinic reopenings.
What gives us pause? For one, the budget sets aside $150 million in “new arrival services” for asylum seekers being bused to Chicago.
But the city still lacks a comprehensive plan for migrants, something this editorial page has repeatedly called for. As a result, Chicago has burned through $363 million since last year — that’s $21,300 per migrant — trying to get a handle on the issue. And the matter still doesn’t seem adequately addressed, while the costs continue to rise.
Does it all add up?
There is a larger, all-important issue on which the upcoming City Council budget hearings — and any outside, independent analysis that may be in the works — must shed considerable light.
Johnson’s budget seeks to slash a $538 million deficit by doing things like tapping into the city’s $400 million surplus, sitting in tax increment financing coffers; refinancing city bonds, which is expected to bring in $89.2 million; and saving $41.5 million by closing out vacant job positions.
This sounds to us like one-time measures that essentially kick the financial can down the road a year, maybe two, when what’s needed is at least a start on creating structural improvements in how the city generates and spends revenue.
We’re also finding Johnson’s plan to reduce the deficit by an additional $186.8 million through “improved revenue projections” a bit hard to swallow. That’s like budgeting based on a pay raise you hope to get — someday.
“We are well on our way to weaning ourselves off of failed, regressive forms of taxation that, unfortunately, have forced ... particularly working families and Black families overwhelmingly out of the city of Chicago,” Johnson said.
That sounds good, as far as it goes. But that can happen only if the budget has been developed with actual rigor — and not the kind of financial sleight-of-hand that we’ve seen for decades here in Chicago, creating the very mess Johnson and his administration must now solve.
“How do you wipe out over $500 million in deficit and create over $300 million in spending without additional revenue?” Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) said after the budget address.
He is right. And now it’s up to Beale and his City Council colleagues to make sure Johnson’s budget is right as well.
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