CHICAGO (WLS) — As the city of Chicago’s budget battle festers on, Mayor Brandon Johnson is offering City Council members an online portal to submit their savings and efficiencies ideas. This comes as the deadline to pass a balanced budget is over one month away. ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch “There’s been a lot of noise around possible efficiencies. So we want to make sure that we are giving aldermen every single opportunity (to) move forward with this budget,” Johnson said. Despite the last-minute portal idea to allow more recommendations, Johnson is not budging on his head tax proposal to raise revenue. While the business community is strongly against it, the mayor says a $21-per-head tax on employees is not a big concern for corporate leaders with whom he has spoken. “I’m a little taken aback by, you know, some of the pushback from the corporate head tax. Because when I talk to CEOs, it doesn’t come up. They talk about community safety,” Johnson said. The mayor is also not budging on union concessions, something one alderman suggested Wednesday. “I’m going to say something uncomfortable here: Labor needs to be at the table,” 19th Ward Ald. Matt O’Shea said. Chicago Federation of Labor President Bob Reiter says labor has been at the table with the mayor’s office. Reiter says unions give every budget cycle, and there is nothing more to give. “The city workforce is smaller than it ever has been, and we have 500 less workers than we did pre-pandemic. You can’t, you can’t keep cutting the workforce,” Reiter said. The mayor says layoffs and furloughs are off the table. Budget Director Annette Guzman says furloughs don’t save money. “The services are expected to continue at the volume, at the pace they currently exist, which means we’re now doing them with people on overtime, which is more expensive,” Guzman said. Despite deep divisions on how to balance the budget and time ticking to get it done, the mayor, alders and labor are confident a budget will passed by the end of the year to avoid a city shutdown.
https://abc7chicago.com/post/chicago-mayor-brandon-johnson-offers-city-council-members-online-portal-submit-budget-efficiency-ideas/18182132/