...home of Al Capone, the Chicago Black Sox, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel...
Mayor Brandon Johnson
...Hizzonner da Mare of Chicago. He was elected in April 2023 to replace the disastrous Lori Lightfoot and immediately set about out-Richtering her. A member of the Democratic Party (naturally), Johnson previously worked as a social studies teacher in the city's stellar public schools system. He helped organize the 2012 teachers strike. Prior to becoming Da Mare, he served on the Cook County Board of Boodlng Commissioners from 2018 to 2023...says the city can expect a $982 million deficit for its 2025 budget, almost double what it was for his first year in office. Johnson blamed the shortfall on higher spending on city workers and lower revenues from city taxes, CBS News reports.
"The size of the budget gap is significant. It's going to require decisions that will speak to our overall collective desire to build an economy that works for working people. There will be sacrifices that will be made," Johnson told news hounds Wednesday afternoon.
While facing an almost $1 billion budget would seem historic, it doesn't equal the $1.2 billion dollar shortfall that former Mayor Lori Lightfoot
..the diminutive and vacuous former Heronner da Mare of Chicago. When the corpse count rises she blames the guns, which are banned anyway...
presided over in 2021 after Covid pandemic costs drove up the city's expenses. Lightfoot weathered the storm with cash infusions from the Biden-Harris administration in its Covid relief spending package.
Last year, Johnson dealt with a $538 million budget deficit for 2024 and didn't lay off city personnel or raise taxes. The mayor declined to say if he would reach for either of those options in the current financial crisis, nor did he comment on the possibility of legalizing video gambling in the city and slot machines at the airport to raise more money. He did not deny that layoffs or at least a hiring freeze at the city is a possibility, according to CBS.
"There are a number of options that we'll explore. What we're working to safeguard against is harm to constituents, to everyday people," he said. "We're working to provide as soft of a landing as possible."
When asked if the deficit had anything to do with city spending on illegal im
Ald. Jason Ervin (28th), chairman of the City Council Budget Committee, downplayed the deficit, saying it is not as bad as he anticipated. But he said there will be some hard decisions to be made by the mayor.
"I think we have to look at everything, but at the same time we have to be reasonable so that we're not impacting those that have generally been most harmed by taxes and fees throughout the history of our city. But, again, I think we start on the expense side of paring that down before looking at revenue," Ervin told news hounds.