If you follow politics and media long enough, you develop a sense to notice when something is out of the ordinary. When a liberal outlet like the Washington Post goes after a hard left Democrat, for instance, it’s usually safe to assume that there is a serious issue at hand.
In this case, it looks like the the Post is deeply concerned about unfunded liabilities in Chicago, specifically pension programs.
Mayor Johnson is proposing tax increases to handle this and the editors of the Washington Post are noting that his ideas are unserious and potentially harmful to the city in the long term:
Chicago has lost its mindChicago has long-term structural problems with its finances, thanks in large part to wildly underfunded pensions. The country’s third-largest city has a history of using short-term gimmicks to paper over its problems, such as a notorious 2008 deal that sold off 75 years of future parking meter revenue for $1.15 billion, which was quickly spent. That deal is still hurting finances today, which should have taught local politicians that there is no substitute for serious fiscal reform. Alas, apparently not.The city’s net operating budget increased almost 40 percent between 2019 and 2025, “subsidized in large part by temporary federal pandemic funding that kept the City financially afloat,” according to Grant McClintock of the Civic Federation. “The pandemic is over, but many of the programs and personnel positions established during that time remain, and without the benefit of the federal funding that previously supported them.”Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) proposes to offset a $1.15 billion shortfall by taxing the businesses that anchor Chicago’s economy, borrowing and more gimmicks.The mayor proposes to increase the tax on the lease of “personal property” like computers, vehicles and software from 11 percent to 14 percent, and to bring back the city’s “head tax,” which would result in large employers paying $33 per worker, per month.By making it more expensive to do business or hire workers in the city, these measures threaten Chicago’s future economic growth and tax collections. These moves are especially reckless given that the Chicago Fed’s 12-month hiring outlook is the weakest it’s been since the pandemic. Gov. JB Pritzker (D) says the head tax would penalize employment.Other gimmicks include a temporary hiring freeze that will do nothing to address the long-term mismatch between spending and revenue, diverting surplus funds earmarked for economic development of blighted areas into the general fund and the school system (once again sacrificing future growth to fund today’s expenditures), and slashing additional payments the city has been making to shore up the city’s underfunded pensions.
Mayor Johnson was asked to respond to this yesterday and claimed that they are wrong, naturally:
In this clip, Johnson spars with a reporter about support for his plans, or lack thereof, from the business community. Johnson claims his plan has broad support from the people of Chicago and insists that corporations must pay their fair share:
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