Johnson pitches to City Council $233.9M package of taxes, fines and fees, including $68.5M property tax hike

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration on Friday started briefing City Council members on a $233.9 million package of taxes, fines and fees, including a $68.5 million property tax increase, in hopes they will approve his 2025 budget next week.

The menu of increases includes a host of nickel-and-dime items in hopes of cobbling together a package that can fill the hole caused by the City Council’s unanimous rejection of Johnson’s $300 million property tax increase.

The mayor's vision for his 2025 budget also took a hit when a tax on prepaid phones and calling cards that his administration was counting on to raise $40 million was shot down in Springfield. Johnson also has to find a way to come up with the $12.7 million to pay for his decision to restore more than 160 police jobs critical to implementing a federal consent decree outlining needed reforms at the Chicago Police Department, a move necessary to avoid being held in contempt of court.

The package Johnson outlined to Council members Friday includes:

• A $68.5 million property tax increase with an automatic escalator locking in annual property tax hikes to match the consumer price index.

• $128 million via raising the tax rate on personal property leases from 9% to 11%.

• $12.9 million by raising the amusement tax on streaming services and cable TV from 9% to $10.25%.

• $74 million by eliminating guaranteed basic income and small business programs bankrolled by federal pandemic relief funds, and making administrative cuts to other pandemic programs.

• $11.3 million from increasing the parking tax at garages and valet services from 22% to 23.35% on weekdays and applying a 20% tax on weekends.

• $5.2 million by raising the tax on checkout bags from 7-cents-a-bag to a dime a bag. Only a penny would go to the retailer. The city would pocket the rest.

• $8.1 million by expanding a congestion surcharge on rideshares to include Saturdays and Sundays, while lowering the surcharge from $3 to $2.75 each weekday.

• $16.5 million by offering “penalty amnesty” programs for vehicle violations, violations of commercial driveway permits and other violations prior to Dec. 31, 2023. Penalty fees on overdue amounts would be waived.

• $4.6 million by raising an array of license fees, transfer fees and fines as well as the cost of resident parking permits. The two-year fee for a wholesale food license would double — from $660 to $1,320. There would be an eight-fold increase in the two-year license to operate a pedicab in Chicago — from $5 to $40.

• $3.1 million in unspecified “efficiencies” at the Department of Fleet and Facilities Management. Another $11.4 million would be generated by revised “revenue forecasting.”

Conspicuously absent from the list is the 34% increase in Chicago’s liquor tax Johnson had initially proposed, or any increase in Chicago’s $9.50-a-month garbage collection fee, which Council members debated last month.

Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th), co-chair of the City Council’s Progressive Caucus, is slated to be briefed on Johnson's proposal Monday. He responded with arms folded to the list shared with him by the Chicago Sun-Times one day after joining 27 of his colleagues in demanding that the mayor make deeper spending cuts in hopes of averting the need for any increase in property taxes.

“Every couple days, there’s new efficiencies, new ideas, new revenue. This tells me we’re still negotiating. And that’s okay. That’s a good healthy thing. But, I think it’s a it premature to think you get to a vote next week when there’s still some questions on the table,” Vasquez said.

Ald. Ray Lopez (15^th), one of Johnson’s most outspoken Council critics, said $3.1 million in cuts to the Department of Fleet and Facilities Management makes it clear there has been “no serious discussion on rightsizing spending and cutting the mid-level management and patronage positions that litter every department in City Hall.”

“Mayor Johnson has proposed using budgetary gimmicks like `revenue forecast,’ nickel-and-diming taxpayers and minimal staffing cuts as his solution next year. Higher taxes on grocery bags, higher costs of residential parking permit vehicle stickers, parking garage tax increases and a Netflix tax are not what Chicagoans wants," Lopez said.

Ald. Marty Quinn (13^th) questioned whether Johnson will have the 26 votes he needs to approve his revised $17.3 billion budget next week.

“This idea that you can nickel-and-dime Chicagoans or hand them a property tax is not going to be tolerated by Chicagoans — whether it’s $300 million, $150 million or $68 million,” Quinn said.