50-0 in a rare unanimous roll-call vote to discard the tax hike
The Chicago City Council emphatically voted down Mayor Brandon Johnson’s plan to hike property taxes by $300 million Thursday, creating a yawning hole in the city’s 2025 budget that must now be closed.
Aldermen voted 50-0 in a rare unanimous roll-call vote to discard the tax hike in a special meeting that lasted just minutes and included no debate. The council’s decisive rejection gives aldermen leverage they have rarely enjoyed in ongoing budget negotiations: Whatever comes next, it won’t be Johnson’s original plan.
The property hike proved wildly unpopular with constituents, aldermen have said. But its demise forces the council and mayor to now come up with new answers. While many aldermen joined the mayor to argue Chicago must find new revenue and avoid layoffs, others said the body must make major budget cuts.
“The only way you are going to make real structural reform here is by making some deep cuts,” downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, said after the vote.
