Chicago mayor warns of possible mid-year layoffs due to budget uncertainties
CHICAGO - Mayor Brandon Johnson said he’s preparing for the possibility of mid-year layoffs of city workers due to the uncertainty over whether the budget passed by the City Council will cover expenses.
What we know:
During a news conference on Wednesday, Johnson said there were "concerns" that the revenue projections in the budget passed by a group of aldermen without his support would add up in the end.
"We warned people," he said. "So there will be an ongoing effort to clean up this process as far as the specifics around video gaming … and the like. Look, again, I think that there are some projections there that are inflated and we’ll have to continue to work with City Council, and we will."
The mayor said he was going to closely monitor monthly revenue numbers to see if his administration would need to make any "strategic decisions around how we salvage or address the shortfall." He added that the layoffs could affect city workers used for "community safety."
"I’m continuously working with City Council and rolling up my sleeves to ensure that we can mitigate that type of harm, but we have to deal with the reality that there were alders that chose to create projections that, quite frankly, just were not tethered to reality," Johnson said.
Johnson butted heads with the council members who pushed for measures like increases in the city’s plastic bag fee, the selling of debt to collectors, and allowing video gambling in bars and restaurants.
The group of alders came up with their own budget plan because they rejected his proposal to reinstitute a corporate head tax on the city’s largest companies. Last month, a majority of the City Council ultimately approved what was referred to as the "alternative budget," which Johnson refused to sign or veto in order to avert an unprecedented city government shutdown.
What's next:
During that same news conference on Wednesday, Johnson also didn’t answer a question about whether he was "all in" on a re-election bid in 2027, especially after some high-profile names have announced their mayoral candidacies. He gave a similar non-answer to Fox Chicago last month when asked about his future plans.
U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley was the latest politico to throw his name in the conversation for the mayoral race next year. Other declared candidates include Joe Holberg, a venture capitalist from the North Side, and Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas.