(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson acknowledged last week that the sanctuary city had “reached a point of no return” in its fiscal recklessness and would need a major tax hike to bail it out.
“The systems that people rely upon—education, health care, housing, our transportation—they are woefully underfunded, and everyone knows that,” Johnson said, according to CBS News.
“Everyone knows what, you know, my commitment is to progressive revenue,” he continued. “I can’t do this by myself.”
Johnson, a “defund the police” advocate, was reacting to a pension bill signed by Democrat Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker that would increase benefits for police and firefighters, estimated to cost an additional $11 billion for Chicago.
Democrats have controlled the Windy City since April 1931. However, Johnson shocked many with his 2023 election, running to the left of his widely unpopular predecessor, Lori Lightfoot.
He has advocated for socialist policies and faced backlash for his embrace of illegal immigrants, even offering $9,000 per household in rent and moving subsidies to lure illegals to the city at the peak of the Biden administration’s open-border policies.
Johnson’s personal spending has also been a point of concern, such as a $30,000 bill for salon trips, which reportedly came from his campaign coffers.
The current fiscal crisis comes as no surprise. The city announced last year that its 2025 budget faced a $1 billion shortfall. It estimated a similar shortage for 2026.
The City Council already voted against an increase in property taxes, but Johnson is considering alternative ways to tax ultra-wealthy residents.
“Everything has to be on the table. Everything has to be on the table,” Johnson said in July.
Chicago has roughly 127,000 millionaires and 25 billionaires—including members of the Pritzker family, which owns the Hyatt hotel chain.
Johnson denied that his policies would lead to an exodus of wealthy Chicagoans, claiming it had increased by 24% in recent years.
“This notion somehow that we’re scaring millionaires away, it’s just the opposite,” he said.
“Not that I know a whole bunch of millionaires, but do you know what they talk about when they do engage with me?” he added. “They talk about community safety. They don’t talk about taxes. Their No. 1 issue is community safety, and as we continue to see the trend moving a positive direction, that allows for our economy to grow.”
New York City faces a similar prospect of insolvency pending the outcome of its upcoming mayoral election. Averred communist Zohran Mamdani is currently leading the pack, which also includes incumbent mayor Eric Adams, disgraced former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and perennial Republican candidat Curtis Sliwa.
Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.
