Chicago’s Finance and Budget committees have approved a $68.5 million property tax increase, marking an important step in Mayor Brandon Johnson’s efforts to address the city’s nearly $1 billion deficit.
The latest version of the mayor’s budget proposal narrowly passed, with some changes from his initial plan. While there will be no layoffs under this new budget, it does include additional taxes on cloud services, parking fees, streaming platforms and plastic bags. In addition to these measures, a congestion tax on weekend ride shares has been added and more speed cameras have been approved by the budget committee.
Last month saw the rejection of Mayor Johnson’s original budget plan which included a larger property tax hike of $300 million as well as an additional proposed increase of $150 million. The revised version now heads to a full city council vote on Friday with hopes that it will be passed before year-end deadline for approving budgets is reached.
