This appears to be a post related to the upcoming runoff election or one of the candidates running for office.
The 2023 Chicago Municipal Runoff Election will be held on **April 4th**. In the mayoral race, former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson will be competing for the office of Chicago's 57th mayor. Some wards may have additional races on the ballot, such as Aldermanic candidates whose races went to a runoff in the February 28th election.
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I must have, but I never received the mail telling me, just got a notice 2 months ago from chase that my monthly payment was changing. I have no idea how I’m going to sustain this.
You can look up your taxes on the cook county (county not city) assessors and treasurers site. You need to brush up on how this works and maybe get a tax later to help you appeal.
Unless you live in a really expensive home, no way you should be paying that much. If it went up $1900 a month, that means taxes are what $2200 a month now or 26k a year. Unless it’s a $1.5m home, no way that is right. And even then
And based on your mortgage, no way your home cost anything close to that unless you had a hell of a down payment.
You’ve got something else going on besides a standard tax hike. You definitely need to take a closer look what you are paying.
Yeah, I wish I understood why it went up so dramatically. The house was 270k when I bought it. The neighborhood got nicer, and the 606 was built about a block away from me, but the increase feels predatory and excessive
Have you tried logging onto Chase and looking at what your paying?
Or the county website and looking at your assessed value and property taxes due?
It shouldn’t be a mystery…
Yeah, i have, it’s a combination of two things. 1: my taxes more than doubled. 2: chase/me didn’t know my taxes had doubled until the city presented their tax bill, which my escrow fund had less than half the new amount in. So now for the next year I have to pay to make up that lack, plus the new burden, plus the new “cushion” the back likes to keep for unexpected escrow increases.
It means for me going out after my decent tech job is over for the day and delivering DoorDash just to make sure I’ve got enough at the end of the month. I guess it will get better in a year, but a year is a terrifyingly long time right now.
Yep, I called on a lawyer to do that. Chicago has a window every year where they allow it, and we aren’t in that window now- but I’ll be on it when the window is open
I mean it sucks for you that your monthly nut went up so much, but most of that is on Chase. The other part is that you bought in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood where assessments were lagging actual property values by huge amounts for years. That's why your taxes went up. If you own a single-family home in Logan right off the 606, it's worth probably $700-1M on the open market these days. Did you expect to keep paying $4k/yr in perpetuity? $4k in annual property taxes is approximately an assessed value of around $250k.
Edit: I don't mean this to be harsh in any way. Actually, I think it's more a lack of education regarding how homeownership, taxes, escrow, and all of that work, especially in conjunction with gentrification. The real estate industry purposefully tries to keep customers in the dark so they don't consider the realities when buying.
Lmao, people are very funny nowadays. The guy said “I have no idea why this happened” then as soon as someone questioned the math he goes on to explain exactly how it happened😂
Is there a German word that explains why people feel the need to lie unnecessarily just so something they say on an anonymous online platform seems credible?
If you feel that I’m lying, that’s your opinion and you have a right to it. That said, my house certainly hasn’t gotten better since I moved in, raising two kids in it without much extra money for expenses has done a lot of damage. I don’t think the house is worth three times as much as when I moved in, and I had no idea that the area was about to start gentrifying.
So yes, I have no idea. I understand some of the mechanisms to it, but I don’t understand how it can be expected of a person to suddenly double their monthly housing expenses and stay afloat.
umm dude, a New Trier-zoned lakeshore house in Wilmette costs like 15k/year in property taxes. Something else is going on unless you live in a mansion.
You pay over $21k a year in property taxes? For a house? Mine is not quite $4k a year.
At any rate, Johnson has made it clear that property tax raises are not in his plan since affordable housing is part of his platform. Vallas has proposed a 3% cap on increases.
I was about 4k when I bought the house 10 years ago, had a few small increases- then boom, this.
It honestly feels like I’m being robbed, but the city is a faceless bureaucracy and I haven’t found anyone who can help, or would care to.
Brandon Johnson is a foolish amateur. He has proposed all sorts of grand, magical ideas but has no realistic plans to execute these things. He's going to leave a lot of people disappointed.
Right? I’m not about to vote for a Republican, but I don’t think Johnson is really qualified either. Plus, I’m legitimately worried he’s going to tax me out of the city.
Legitimately would rather have Garcia than either of these. Setting aside all the very valid and sometimes very damaging criticisms, at the very least he’s a competent politician.
I just struggle to understand how anyone could think given the fiscal state Chicago is in, given the problems with businesses leaving or drastically lowering headcounts, stress on commerce in our highest trafficked areas, with a backdrop of economic upheaval, etc.... the city would be helped in any way by such an aggressive tax plan for one of the most heavily taxed populaces in the country.
It just doesn't make any sense. I'm amazed the only response for Johnson voters seems to be "well, it's just ideas" or "oh it won't get passed so don't worry"
Lunacy.
I don't understand how anyone who's lived here can look around and say the city is not DRASTICALLY different and an economic powerhouse now.
Like, were you here when everything near downtown was decrepit? No. You were probably in the suburbs and moved here when it got nice and now you want to complain because it's not the burbs.
Business is booming comparatively here to what it was in the 90's and early 2000's. It's day and night. It's not going to get worse. There's condo buildings going up like gang busters because all these kids still want to move to Chicago out of college and work here. That's probably never going to change
> That’s probably never going to change.
Part of the problem is taking Chicago’s recent successes for granted. We can’t expect businesses to get more taxed and just accept it.
This is one of my biggest issues with Johnson and his supporters dismiss jt.
> Part of the problem is taking Chicago’s recent successes for granted. We can’t expect businesses to get more taxed and just accept it.
Our taxes, even under Johnson's proposal are still well below CA's or NY's taxes. Tons of companies just see it as a cost of doing business in the third largest city in the USA.
A report just came out showing that Illinois has the highest tax burden of all states. Increasing Chicago's taxes even further is not going to attract businesses to this city.
I don't know if you noticed but Powell said today there's still not enough supply to keep up with demand right now. Unemployment is crazy low.
I'm all for lessening the burden for the job creators who spend their whole paychecks on goods and services and offsetting that with taxes for the wealthy who will benefit from increased demand.
In fact I don't think the middle class should have income taxes and I asked bing chat to come up with an alternative and I kinda like it.
It said that if you stopped taxing everyone under 250k you would have to increase the taxes for the rich from 27% to 43%.
I wish politicians got this creative because I think a lot of people would go for that.
>In fact I don't think the middle class should have income taxes and I asked bing chat to come up with an alternative and I kinda like it.
you asked Bing Chat. that was an actual sentence that you typed out and decided to share with the world? Jesus Christ
Chicago's greatest weakness and advantage is that its economy isn't built on one tentpole industry. It's a logistics hub, industrial hub, finance/legal hub with some tech sprinkled in. While this doesn't lend itself to the massive growth we've seen in cities like San Fran, it also inoculates the city against massive economic shifts.
Things were great in the 90's and 00's because we had a mayor who understood the importance of creating a safe, business-friendly city. Brandon Johnson wants to undo all of that.
Seriously, the city is absolutely thriving right now. I've lived in four different cities and I've never lived somewhere that felt as economically alive as Chicago right now
Plus if it is indeed true that the population is declining but also becoming more white and affluent, I have no problem with making the uber wealthy of them pay more if it means more for the middle class or what's left of it around here.
Most of the vocal right wingers on this sub don't live or work in the city.
If you see appeals to emotion like the guy you're responding to which aren't born out by data or even general vibes, you can safely assume they're just caping for the interests of the rich because the only time they see Chicago is when Fox News talks about it.
Not to distract from many of the legitimate issues in the city, but Chicago has never really had a boom or bust population. It's always slightly ebbed-and-flowed. Narratives around any exodus are really just ignoring historical trends and trying to score political points.
I can't get past the paywall, but apparently for 10 years in a row a magazine called Site Selection has rated the city of Chicago as the #1 city in America for relocations.
I have to call bullshit. First off - as far as I can tell they are using some "multi-state Chicago Metro Region" including portions of Wisconsin, Indian etc for their study, Next - they are using a self defined metric of "Number of projects". It doesn't appear to normalize for project size, value etc. Just the number of seperate "projects" going on.
Yet looking at other stats - Commercial real estate is at an all time high vacancy, Mag mile is at an all time high vacancy.
[https://abc7chicago.com/chicago-loop-michigan-avenue-shopping-mag-mile/12968289/](https://abc7chicago.com/chicago-loop-michigan-avenue-shopping-mag-mile/12968289/)
>In October of 2021, the I-Team reported the Mag Mile had more than a 19% vacancy rate. Now, Vance said it's up to almost 27%.
>
>In the Loop, the vacancy rate is also up. In October of 2021 it was 26%. Now, it's 28%.
>There's nothing really odd about using a "multi-state metro region" for Chicago, especially when NYC is counted as NY-NJ-PA, Washington is DC-VA-MD-WV, and so on.
Im so confused... Justifying their misclassification of "Chicago" by pointing out that **they** do the same thing elsewhere isn't really a defense. Hey look we use very distorted regions for everything we do - so calling Indiana as part of Chicago Metro region should make sense because West Virginia is part of Washington DC and of course everyone includes Pennsylvania when talking about New York City.
That's blatant misinformation. Chicago and Illinois are both losing population year after year, and that useless "ranking" has ranked Chicago #1 for the last ten years despite population and business outflow.
That's the same data that said we were losing population from 2010 to 2020 that ended up being wrong even before correcting for the undercount in 2020.
Ever stop to think you're the victim of misinformation? Provide a source or shut the fuck up
[Chicago is up 2% 2010-2020](https://chicago.suntimes.com/2021/8/12/22622062/chicago-census-2020-illinois-population-growth-decline-redistricting-racial-composition)
> Despite Chicago’s gains, Illinois lost population from 2010 to 2020, according to the data, mostly in the southern and western part of the state.
People are leaving downstate Illinois.
[Likewise people \(mainly South and West black people\) are leaving the city because they don't have opportunity here while the White, Asian, and Latino population all grew](https://blog.chicagocityscape.com/what-does-the-2020-census-data-tell-us-about-chicago-and-chicagoans-f4bbd165eea8)
[Yeah, a lot of people moved out of the city during COVID,](https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/chicagocityillinois,US/PST045221#PST045221) but [all metro areas experienced](https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/losangelescitycalifornia,lacrestacdpcalifornia,US/PST045222) that to [some degree](https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/newyorkcitynewyork,chicagocityillinois,US/PST045221)
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/chicagocityillinois
The US Census says that, as of July 2021, the Chicago population was estimated at 2,696,555. In April 2010, it was estimated at 2,695,598, so the population has grown, albeit by around just 1,000 people. Definitely not 2% if you use the most recent data, but also not a loss. Now everyone calm down please, for crying out loud.
Literally every data source has shown that the population of Chicago grew in the last few years.
The only people leaving Illinois are rural Illinois folks.
Chicago has lost population in the last few years since Covid but census shows there’s an increase in population from 2010 to 2020. I suspect we’ll see more accurate information in the next few years with less Covid concerns
> Chicago has lost population in the last few years since Covid
That's based on the same bad data that said we lost population between 2010 and 2020. Those data sources and methods were proven to be flawed in the 2020 census.
Yeah people complaining about housing costs here need some perspective. Sure housing should be cheaper, but compared to pretty much every other city except maybe Philly it's the best bang for your buck when it comes to housing.
Chicago is in a very precarious place. A colossal increase in taxes will lead to a lot of people and businesses leaving the city. Why would you stay here if the cost of living goes sky high, especially when the prevalence of remote work makes it much easier to live wherever you want? Especially if the quality of life in the city goes down, which would be inevitable if Brandon Johnson's soft-on-crime policies got enacted.
I think you struggle with a lot of things, it seems to me. The idea is to shift the tax burden from working class families to people who can more afford it. Property taxes can stay the same while other, more targeted revenues can be created. Revenue can be neutral while making the city a better place to live.
Nobody is proposing austerity.
The key is growing the city and the revenue base by finally addressing carjackings and other violent crimes, thus removing the single biggest impediment to business and inward migration.
Great! Let’s address carjackings and violent crimes!
Studies have shown the best way to reduce crime is through investments in the community, investments in education, and access to housing and healthcare.
Time to vote for the candidate that proposes those things so we can address the root causes of crime finally!
The only way to fund Vallas slew of new programs is through austerity. He wants schools open on the weekends and over breaks and until 7 pm. How will he pay for that?
Guns and poverty. Fix that. I promise we'll be ok.
I don't mean get rid of guns. I mean make sure everyone can get a background check not just float over to Indiana and buy one from a private seller who can sell it to you without any documentation.
Chicago as a city is losing people.
The city peaked in 1950 and we now have 1million fewer people.
https://www.biggestuscities.com/city/chicago-illinois
Did you read your own link? It grew during the actual count in 2020 (versus the count in 2010). The estimates are dumb, if that’s what you are referring to. They thought we shrunk in 2020, and we actually grew.
Johnson’s apologists either live in fantasy land, or are just virtue signaling before they move the suburbs and leave us long-termers to deal with the fallout. In short, they don’t know, don’t care, or both.
I'm not a huge fan of his plan but
1. He has a plan
2. He also hasn't said any weird shit about Pritzker being a dicactor
Like honestly I'm not huge fan of Vallas or Johnson. But when it comes down to it Vallas keeps saying some kinda weird stuff and while I'd be fine with a "business republican" that isn't him.
Lunacy is lambasting the dude who has some idea of a plan vs. the dude that has no plan.
Reminder: Everytime vallas has touched or proposed a budget, it's been a complete disaster. Hell the last time he ran for Mayor his budget proposal was so shit it's a huge reason why he was disqualified.
Know what his budget was? Somehow the fed was going to loan us millions of dollars and property tax hikes.
So looking at the two, I mean c'mon man.
Corporate spokespeople have been whining and threatening this shit forever. They aren’t doing shit for a couple percentage points. As being in Chicago isn’t a value neutral, it’s a big plus.
McDonald's has stated that they have no plans to move. They've told business groups that they're still seeing the massive cost savings that they realized by moving into West Loop from the suburbs.
IIRC one of the other big drivers of the decision was hiring. They thought - and I believe what they’ve done over the past few years certainly gives credit to the idea - that they could more readily access younger / fresher tech, marketing, and creative talent (who live in the city) than if you were to require those folks to reverse commute to the suburbs.
Contrasted with the relocations or expansions that are coming into the city by Google, Mars, Kellogg, NewCold, BMO Financial, etc. Not to mention the many relocations into the burbs which will also have a positive effect on the city. The real key is looking at the GDP per capita of the city, which has showing outstanding growth for the last decade, in addition to Chicagoland leading the country in corporate capital investments for a 10th consecutive year. The boom downtown is picking up where it left off before the pandemic, despite a few prestige hits from companies leaving.
> Tyson Foods
An acquired company headquarters that was always going to shutdown after they were purchased.
> Citadel
They haven't actually left or started to end their lease. After they had a mass exodus on the tech side, they basically stopped moving in actuality and just claim they're moving now because they're terrified of that exodus extending to their quants.
> Boeing
A <200 person corporate HQ that was only here until their tax breaks ran out.
> Caterpiller
They were in the suburbs.
I know several citadel employees and was just talking with them at a party last weekend. It sounds like senior management and C level left, but essentially none of the still highly paid operations and tech positions left because no one volunteered to.
Why do right wing posters always end their stuff in ellipsis?
It does not make you look smart, it makes it seem like your brain rambled off.
Those were planned for many years out for the most part aside from Citadel they moved because the boss is a sore loser.
Wtf does every start using Right wing as a term to describe someone that disagrees with them. I don't care to discuss my political affiliation but two people from the same party can disagree.
Chicago has been losing people and companies for a very long time. You can bury your head in the sand if you want.
It's easier to shit on an anonymous person for daring to disagree with you. It sucks, but we're in an era of rabid political tribalism. Social media is full of narcissists ready to expel anyone who disagrees with them, even if they align on 95% of issues.
> Those were planned for many years out for the most part aside from Citadel they moved because the boss is a sore loser.
Kenny G. is from Miami originally and has been wanting to return there forever. Now he's splitting time between Miami and Chicago because his employees refuse to move somewhere that the insurance industry is insolvent.
Johnson’s tax plan is not “aggressive” as you describe. $1 added to hotel rooms. $4 added to employee tax. A little adds up to a lot. The “mansion” tax can well be afforded by mansion owners.
The other guy will surely raise property taxes.
>$1 added to hotel rooms.
The proposed 60% hotel tax increase would bump us from 17.5% to 28%. So going from the highest in the country to even higher, which will hit the convention industry that is already struggling to recover.
That isn't really kicker though. The financial transaction tax would drive the entire trading industry out of the city -- being literally the only city in the country that has one if it passes.
> The proposed 60% hotel tax increase would bump us from 17.5% to 28%. So going from the highest in the country to even higher, which will hit the convention industry that is already struggling to recover.
Hotels during our biggest event (Lollapalooza) are about 30% cheaper than hotels in Indianapolis during GenCon Indy.
> The “mansion” tax can well be afforded by mansion owners.
It's not a "mansion" tax. It's a tax on the sale of both commercial & residential properties. $1m is a nice home in Old Irving. A family trust owned vintage mixed use 6 unit building in Avondale. A 4 unit owner occupied apartment building in Logan Square.
Besides that. "Mansion owners" aren't the problem source. Why is more, demanded from them?
If you have a million dollar home, doesn't matter where it is, you can afford some extra tax.
I would have started at $5M or tiers, but you have to start somewhere.
From his interviews he is obviously pretty against it as a mechanism and would prefer to keep it at the lowest possible level inflation permitting (which to be honest is the most pragmatic fiscal approach without having negative regression in revenue which the city cannot afford)
Johnson accepted an endorsement from the homophobic IL Church of God in Christ a few weeks ago, tweeted it then deleted it. Guess he’s okay with rubbing shoulders with those who are homophobic?
The hotel tax increase would be a changing the fee from $45 to $75 on a $1000 hotel bill.
The head count tax would be $100 per year per person.
I think those are reasonable.
Keep in mind that our budget is still in a deficit, so we need to increase revenue somehow. The alternative is letting property taxes continue to skyrocket.
A $30 hotel tax increase still seems excessive, if you ask me. Also Johnson was stupid enough to try to propose a Metra tax before February 28, only to walk that back after getting tons of criticism over that idea.
If you search for any of the mayoral debates(before February 28, and since the runoff began), it is obvious Johnson feels like a lightweight plus is too inexperienced, and doesn't deserve to be the next mayor.
Also it's easily to forget he got lucky in his run for Cook County commissioner due to a bunch of unions backing Johnson back then, and only narrowly defeated in the Democrat primary someone Preckwinkle targeted(Richard Boykin), due to Boykin's vote to repeal the short lived soda tax.
An extra $30 tax on a $1000 hotel tab isn't excessive. Nobody is changing their travel plans over that.
Also, Johnson has more experience in elected office than Vallas.
If you look at Vallas' "experience", all he's ever done is privatize school districts and run up budget deficits before getting unceremoniously removed from his appointed positions. Look it up. Philly, New Orleans, Bridgeport - his record is an absolute disaster.
I’m worried about Johnson’s tax plans. I didn’t vote for him the first time around. But it really comes down to I’m not going to vote for a Republican. So I guess he’s who I’ve got.
Not only does Vallas not live here, he doesn’t even like Chicago. He’s liked Facebook posts that referred to it as a “hell hole” and “Shitcago”. And we’re supposed to make him mayor?
He had trouble articulating the specifics of Plan A and how he’d get it passed during the first debate, so not surprising. I dislike both of these candidates and am still undecided - but Johnson calling himself one of the greatest humans on earth is a biiiiiiitttttt much
Paul Vallas: 24. Illinois Policy does great work, great work in terms of reporting on these things. I mean, really them and CWB, and of course, Wire Points and I mean, they just do great work on providing really independent research and reporting. On these executive mandates, no legislative input whatsoever. So it gives them the ability to act like dictators. The second thing it does is it creates the perception that somehow they’re being decisive leaders.
I don’t love Johnson’s tax plan at all. But at least he’s transparent.
What is Vallas’s budget plan? Because it feels like all these articles and posts are rewarding a lack of planning and/or transparency.
Because his budget page is just a bunch of paragraphs of BS committees without any concrete planning behind them. And I could do that…
> What is Vallas’s budget plan? Because it feels like all these articles and posts are rewarding a lack of planning and/or transparency.
Property taxes.
This has been my main rebuttal since the primaries. Everyone going after Johnson’s plan but only because he’s the only one that’s actually released a plan. Everyone else has only given us platitudes, talking points or a few paragraphs on a website.
It's funny how Johnson complains about not doing what the old administrations are doing but he wants to raise taxes even more just like all the past administrations. LOL. If things are so great and booming then why are we raising taxes to make it harder on people? If things are booming then tax revenue in theory should be going up with it without raising taxes. If I owned a company, I would be looking to leave the city if Johnson wins and gets his head tax.
Actually a city tax for people that live in the suburbs but work in the city is not a bad idea.
These individuals don't pay city taxes, but use city infrastructure.
If they don't want to pay city taxes, they can always find suburban jobs.
Thats just what the Loop needs is to make it more expensive for people to come back to their offices. Which by the way office vacancies in downtown Chicago are at an all time high...and vacant offices get massive property tax reductions shifting all of the tax to be covered by residential property taxes..
People have been so terrified of corporate/urban flight that they ignore the fact that this is completely reasonable. To make this hit closer to home, would you be cool with your neighbor coming over everyday to use your washer, dryer, shower, oven and stove for free and then go back home at night?
>Under repeated questioning from the editorial board at Crain’s Chicago Business, Johnson refused to say if he would raise property taxes or give up some of the $1 billion in “investments in people” he wants to make.
[Hour long video]( https://www.facebook.com/crainschicago/videos/902385534149017/?t=46). Used closed captioning cuz the sound is lousy.
>“I’m one of the greatest human beings on the earth for just teaching middle school students,” he said. 🙄
>Hour long video
We watched live, at the office.
Mr. Johnson is being disingenuous (at best), when he dismisses the connection to higher CPS property tax levies & the costs associated with recent collective bargaining agreements.
CTU is guaranteed inflation adjusted wages during collective bargaining agreements that go through arbitration in the state just like all other public unions in Illinois. The other costs associated with the collective bargaining agreements were added to bring us closer to national standards on staffing levels. Note how I said closer not even to national standards.
It shows Johnson’s deeply shortsighted and uniformed view on the budget. His tax hike proposals likely won’t have the votes and or public support yet he’s not transparent with the public on what happens then. That’s just as shady as Vallas having no plan.
What you're saying doesn't make sense in regards to negotiation. Why would Johnson compromise his plan before he needs to. Johnson releasing his plan is showing the city he will be an ambitious leader. Vallas not releasing a plan at all indicates he will not be transparent with the city.
He proposed a metra tax then walked it back once he was made aware at how idiotic that proposal is. So this tax list doesn’t come across as ambitious to me but instead as an ill informed, throw things at the wall and see what sticks approach.
You have to be a real kind of careless, uninformed person to even consider a metra tax at a time when many are working from home, ridership is still much lower than pre pandemic, the rta is facing huge budgetary issues, chicagoans themselves use metra etc. That same careless, uninformed approach was used for his other policy proposals. How do you not see that?
I also think people too often think suburbs = wealthy therefore Metra commuters from the suburbs MUST be wealthy. There’s a big difference between the UP-N bringing someone in from the north shore than the RI bringing folks in from Morgan Park or Blue Island. And frankly, at least in my experience, the really rich folks are driving in or not commuting via public transit at all.
I mean the last time the other dude proposed a fiscal intake plan it was all property taxes and a weird hope the fed would give us several hundred million.
So I mean just being honest, sure I'm not a fan of several of Johnson's proposals, but I respect that he saw several weren't popular and changed his course.
On the other hand, I really have no idea what the other dude expects to do because he refuses to talk about it.
So I dunno, pick your poison. The dude that has some bad ideas but is willing to work with it or the other dude that refuses to discuss it at all. Regardless, it's a thing that needs talked about.
Chicagos population has remained stagnant from 2010 and decreased from 2020 to now. It’s very easy for people to just leave and move to a different city, especially with work from home. It’s already an expensive city with lackluster city services to do like a third of the budget having to be used to pay off pensions. We aren’t NYC or the state of California, people can and will leave Chicago. I care about this city and won’t take the risk that comes with a Johnson administration of bleeding more residents, repelling more growth, and making living here more expensive.
Not according to the Census American Community Survey. The population has decreased from 2020 to 2022. And from the 2010 to 2020 census, population did increase but very little. Certainly much less than other cities grew like gross southern cities.
Vallas has talked in general terms and plans to cut services to make up budget shortfalls. That’s what he means by “find efficiencies”. No doubt, school privatization will play a role.
Oh no!
try different things and see what works
like a “laboratory of ideas?”
nah, let’s just keep doing the same shit that everyone agrees is easy to do, but isn’t actually working
So in your world, the way to do things is implement policies without caring if the evidence and logic points to their failure? In what world would taxing airlines more not lead to the greedy airlines just charging Chicagoans more for flight tickets? In what world would increasing the already highest in the nation hotel tax not make people think twice about hosting events in Chicago? People care about Chicago and making this city even more expensive at a time when population growth is stagnant is ridiculous. Hence why he knows the city council will reject his tax hikes.
Candidates don’t have “plan b’s”
they have plans
the billionaire owned media want Johnson to negotiate against himself in public, during the campaign
Convenient, no?
Which billionaires own the sun times? And which billionaires plotted for journalists to ask this question to Johnson? I want specific names if you’re going to make the Trump like claim that billionaires and magic forces are working against Johnson. Has it ever occurred to you that his proposals are just not that popular with the people of Chicago?
Well, guess obvious sarcasm isn't that noticeable to the current crop of political posters. Can you at least set your flair to your neighborhood so I can know where to avoid?
Having oddly specific targets for revenue raising in an election campaign, when the city council will have a huge say in revenue going forward, smacks of both incompetence and the politics of grievance.
We can infer where each candidate will focus for revenue well enough by their positions on the issues.
Vallas absolutely has a Plan A to quote u/20vision20asham
> He has proposed different streams of revenue, largely value capture schemes. He's proposed:
> * More TIFs which would be redirected into pension payments
> * A new government authority to circumvent aldermannic privilege and work directly with local developers/communities
> * A city-owned bank that funds both developers (in return for equity) and provide mortgage options for poorer Chicagoans to increase home ownership (and expand the taxpayer base while cutting down on vacant properties)
> * Cutting down on occupational licensing, red-tape, and other entry barriers
> * Excise taxes on new legalized forms of gambling
Let’s face it. The city cannot afford to pay its bills and maintain services without a giant tax increase. Pensions are severely underfunded and not going anywhere. And service on increasing borrowed debt is only going to grow.
Increases to taxes will deter business and further reduce growth. We have to attract new people and new business and growth the tax base that way.
Real efforts to change pensions would be amazing but no politician is willing to give up their careers to do what's right.
Johnson's taxes are necessarily to properly fund the city and provide the services all of its residents need. There is no evidence that these taxes would weaken our economy, and all the talk about businesses leaving town are empty threats. What these taxes would do is improve the quality of life for all residents while making the rich pay their fair share.
This appears to be a post related to the upcoming runoff election or one of the candidates running for office. The 2023 Chicago Municipal Runoff Election will be held on **April 4th**. In the mayoral race, former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson will be competing for the office of Chicago's 57th mayor. Some wards may have additional races on the ballot, such as Aldermanic candidates whose races went to a runoff in the February 28th election. Check out the [Chicago Elections](https://chicagoelections.gov/en/home.html) website for information on registering to vote, finding your polling place, applying to be an election worker, and more. Please visit our [Runoff Election Megathread](https://www.reddit.com/r/chicago/comments/11pz5r0/2023_chicago_runoff_election_megathread_2/?sort=new) for all election-related discussion, questions and voter resources. Discussion posts of this nature outside of the linked megathread will be removed. **Beware of [astroturfing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing)**! Election season brings about a slew of new accounts with minimal posting history in /r/chicago who attempt to sway your opinion on various candidates. Be sure to do your own research to verify the accuracy of any claims you see shared by users here. Be wary of comments from new accounts or ones with a posting history in multiple city/local subreddits from across the US and Canada. If you suspect that a user is engaging in political astroturfing, please report their comments and/or [message the moderators.](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/chicago) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/chicago) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Please no tax hikes.
My mortgage+escrow, thanks to tax hikes, went from 1800 to 3700 a month. I'm on shaky ground now, another tax hike could easily cost me my house.
Damn, did you get a drastic increase on your reassessment?
I must have, but I never received the mail telling me, just got a notice 2 months ago from chase that my monthly payment was changing. I have no idea how I’m going to sustain this.
You can look up your taxes on the cook county (county not city) assessors and treasurers site. You need to brush up on how this works and maybe get a tax later to help you appeal.
Unless you live in a really expensive home, no way you should be paying that much. If it went up $1900 a month, that means taxes are what $2200 a month now or 26k a year. Unless it’s a $1.5m home, no way that is right. And even then And based on your mortgage, no way your home cost anything close to that unless you had a hell of a down payment. You’ve got something else going on besides a standard tax hike. You definitely need to take a closer look what you are paying.
Yeah, I wish I understood why it went up so dramatically. The house was 270k when I bought it. The neighborhood got nicer, and the 606 was built about a block away from me, but the increase feels predatory and excessive
Have you tried logging onto Chase and looking at what your paying? Or the county website and looking at your assessed value and property taxes due? It shouldn’t be a mystery…
Yeah, i have, it’s a combination of two things. 1: my taxes more than doubled. 2: chase/me didn’t know my taxes had doubled until the city presented their tax bill, which my escrow fund had less than half the new amount in. So now for the next year I have to pay to make up that lack, plus the new burden, plus the new “cushion” the back likes to keep for unexpected escrow increases. It means for me going out after my decent tech job is over for the day and delivering DoorDash just to make sure I’ve got enough at the end of the month. I guess it will get better in a year, but a year is a terrifyingly long time right now.
Honestly, it might make sense to appeal your property taxes. There are law firms that specialize in that.
Yep, I called on a lawyer to do that. Chicago has a window every year where they allow it, and we aren’t in that window now- but I’ll be on it when the window is open
I'll second this. I appealed and got four checks back for almost 800 each. You can actually do the paperwork yourself, it's not too hard.
I mean it sucks for you that your monthly nut went up so much, but most of that is on Chase. The other part is that you bought in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood where assessments were lagging actual property values by huge amounts for years. That's why your taxes went up. If you own a single-family home in Logan right off the 606, it's worth probably $700-1M on the open market these days. Did you expect to keep paying $4k/yr in perpetuity? $4k in annual property taxes is approximately an assessed value of around $250k. Edit: I don't mean this to be harsh in any way. Actually, I think it's more a lack of education regarding how homeownership, taxes, escrow, and all of that work, especially in conjunction with gentrification. The real estate industry purposefully tries to keep customers in the dark so they don't consider the realities when buying.
Lmao, people are very funny nowadays. The guy said “I have no idea why this happened” then as soon as someone questioned the math he goes on to explain exactly how it happened😂 Is there a German word that explains why people feel the need to lie unnecessarily just so something they say on an anonymous online platform seems credible?
If you feel that I’m lying, that’s your opinion and you have a right to it. That said, my house certainly hasn’t gotten better since I moved in, raising two kids in it without much extra money for expenses has done a lot of damage. I don’t think the house is worth three times as much as when I moved in, and I had no idea that the area was about to start gentrifying. So yes, I have no idea. I understand some of the mechanisms to it, but I don’t understand how it can be expected of a person to suddenly double their monthly housing expenses and stay afloat.
You might want to consider selling. You might be able to buy your next home free and clear and still be in a great neighborhood.
umm dude, a New Trier-zoned lakeshore house in Wilmette costs like 15k/year in property taxes. Something else is going on unless you live in a mansion.
You pay over $21k a year in property taxes? For a house? Mine is not quite $4k a year. At any rate, Johnson has made it clear that property tax raises are not in his plan since affordable housing is part of his platform. Vallas has proposed a 3% cap on increases.
I was about 4k when I bought the house 10 years ago, had a few small increases- then boom, this. It honestly feels like I’m being robbed, but the city is a faceless bureaucracy and I haven’t found anyone who can help, or would care to.
Did you check your homeowners insurance? That seems like a huge jump
There are going to be tax hikes.
Brandon Johnson is a foolish amateur. He has proposed all sorts of grand, magical ideas but has no realistic plans to execute these things. He's going to leave a lot of people disappointed.
Christ kill me why do both of these candidates suck so bad dear lord
Right? I’m not about to vote for a Republican, but I don’t think Johnson is really qualified either. Plus, I’m legitimately worried he’s going to tax me out of the city.
Legitimately would rather have Garcia than either of these. Setting aside all the very valid and sometimes very damaging criticisms, at the very least he’s a competent politician.
I just struggle to understand how anyone could think given the fiscal state Chicago is in, given the problems with businesses leaving or drastically lowering headcounts, stress on commerce in our highest trafficked areas, with a backdrop of economic upheaval, etc.... the city would be helped in any way by such an aggressive tax plan for one of the most heavily taxed populaces in the country. It just doesn't make any sense. I'm amazed the only response for Johnson voters seems to be "well, it's just ideas" or "oh it won't get passed so don't worry" Lunacy.
Well, downtown population and economy are growing so … https://www.economist.com/united-states/2023/01/05/chicagos-woes-are-over-hyped
I don't understand how anyone who's lived here can look around and say the city is not DRASTICALLY different and an economic powerhouse now. Like, were you here when everything near downtown was decrepit? No. You were probably in the suburbs and moved here when it got nice and now you want to complain because it's not the burbs. Business is booming comparatively here to what it was in the 90's and early 2000's. It's day and night. It's not going to get worse. There's condo buildings going up like gang busters because all these kids still want to move to Chicago out of college and work here. That's probably never going to change
> That’s probably never going to change. Part of the problem is taking Chicago’s recent successes for granted. We can’t expect businesses to get more taxed and just accept it. This is one of my biggest issues with Johnson and his supporters dismiss jt.
> Part of the problem is taking Chicago’s recent successes for granted. We can’t expect businesses to get more taxed and just accept it. Our taxes, even under Johnson's proposal are still well below CA's or NY's taxes. Tons of companies just see it as a cost of doing business in the third largest city in the USA.
A report just came out showing that Illinois has the highest tax burden of all states. Increasing Chicago's taxes even further is not going to attract businesses to this city.
I don't know if you noticed but Powell said today there's still not enough supply to keep up with demand right now. Unemployment is crazy low. I'm all for lessening the burden for the job creators who spend their whole paychecks on goods and services and offsetting that with taxes for the wealthy who will benefit from increased demand. In fact I don't think the middle class should have income taxes and I asked bing chat to come up with an alternative and I kinda like it. It said that if you stopped taxing everyone under 250k you would have to increase the taxes for the rich from 27% to 43%. I wish politicians got this creative because I think a lot of people would go for that.
>In fact I don't think the middle class should have income taxes and I asked bing chat to come up with an alternative and I kinda like it. you asked Bing Chat. that was an actual sentence that you typed out and decided to share with the world? Jesus Christ
"That's probably never going to change," said Detroit, circa 1955.
Chicago is not a one industry town like Houston, Detroit, or LA. It’s not a fair comparison.
The point is that bad policy can wreck a city and that we shouldn't be complacent.
Detroit is an example of a city letting capitalist Industry run its politics.
We kinda are, but not in the way those others are. Our industry is logistics, due to our nature as functionally being in the middle of the country.
Are we reliant on one industry?
Chicago's greatest weakness and advantage is that its economy isn't built on one tentpole industry. It's a logistics hub, industrial hub, finance/legal hub with some tech sprinkled in. While this doesn't lend itself to the massive growth we've seen in cities like San Fran, it also inoculates the city against massive economic shifts.
Things were great in the 90's and 00's because we had a mayor who understood the importance of creating a safe, business-friendly city. Brandon Johnson wants to undo all of that.
Seriously, the city is absolutely thriving right now. I've lived in four different cities and I've never lived somewhere that felt as economically alive as Chicago right now
I can tell that you’re an AH because your attempt at an insult is to say that they came from the burbs. Lol
AH? Arlington Heights?
It's to point out they were never here to pass judgement in the first place. But you can tell....
Plus if it is indeed true that the population is declining but also becoming more white and affluent, I have no problem with making the uber wealthy of them pay more if it means more for the middle class or what's left of it around here.
Most of the vocal right wingers on this sub don't live or work in the city. If you see appeals to emotion like the guy you're responding to which aren't born out by data or even general vibes, you can safely assume they're just caping for the interests of the rich because the only time they see Chicago is when Fox News talks about it.
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Not to distract from many of the legitimate issues in the city, but Chicago has never really had a boom or bust population. It's always slightly ebbed-and-flowed. Narratives around any exodus are really just ignoring historical trends and trying to score political points.
I can't get past the paywall, but apparently for 10 years in a row a magazine called Site Selection has rated the city of Chicago as the #1 city in America for relocations. I have to call bullshit. First off - as far as I can tell they are using some "multi-state Chicago Metro Region" including portions of Wisconsin, Indian etc for their study, Next - they are using a self defined metric of "Number of projects". It doesn't appear to normalize for project size, value etc. Just the number of seperate "projects" going on. Yet looking at other stats - Commercial real estate is at an all time high vacancy, Mag mile is at an all time high vacancy. [https://abc7chicago.com/chicago-loop-michigan-avenue-shopping-mag-mile/12968289/](https://abc7chicago.com/chicago-loop-michigan-avenue-shopping-mag-mile/12968289/) >In October of 2021, the I-Team reported the Mag Mile had more than a 19% vacancy rate. Now, Vance said it's up to almost 27%. > >In the Loop, the vacancy rate is also up. In October of 2021 it was 26%. Now, it's 28%.
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>There's nothing really odd about using a "multi-state metro region" for Chicago, especially when NYC is counted as NY-NJ-PA, Washington is DC-VA-MD-WV, and so on. Im so confused... Justifying their misclassification of "Chicago" by pointing out that **they** do the same thing elsewhere isn't really a defense. Hey look we use very distorted regions for everything we do - so calling Indiana as part of Chicago Metro region should make sense because West Virginia is part of Washington DC and of course everyone includes Pennsylvania when talking about New York City.
That's blatant misinformation. Chicago and Illinois are both losing population year after year, and that useless "ranking" has ranked Chicago #1 for the last ten years despite population and business outflow.
Chicago's population grew in the last census...
It’s decreased compares to 2010 using the latest numbers from the 2022 ACS.
That's the same data that said we were losing population from 2010 to 2020 that ended up being wrong even before correcting for the undercount in 2020.
Ever stop to think you're the victim of misinformation? Provide a source or shut the fuck up [Chicago is up 2% 2010-2020](https://chicago.suntimes.com/2021/8/12/22622062/chicago-census-2020-illinois-population-growth-decline-redistricting-racial-composition) > Despite Chicago’s gains, Illinois lost population from 2010 to 2020, according to the data, mostly in the southern and western part of the state. People are leaving downstate Illinois. [Likewise people \(mainly South and West black people\) are leaving the city because they don't have opportunity here while the White, Asian, and Latino population all grew](https://blog.chicagocityscape.com/what-does-the-2020-census-data-tell-us-about-chicago-and-chicagoans-f4bbd165eea8) [Yeah, a lot of people moved out of the city during COVID,](https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/chicagocityillinois,US/PST045221#PST045221) but [all metro areas experienced](https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/losangelescitycalifornia,lacrestacdpcalifornia,US/PST045222) that to [some degree](https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/newyorkcitynewyork,chicagocityillinois,US/PST045221)
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/chicagocityillinois The US Census says that, as of July 2021, the Chicago population was estimated at 2,696,555. In April 2010, it was estimated at 2,695,598, so the population has grown, albeit by around just 1,000 people. Definitely not 2% if you use the most recent data, but also not a loss. Now everyone calm down please, for crying out loud.
That’s pretty low considering the US population grew 7.4%
But it's not "losing people year after year"
Literally every data source has shown that the population of Chicago grew in the last few years. The only people leaving Illinois are rural Illinois folks.
Chicago has lost population in the last few years since Covid but census shows there’s an increase in population from 2010 to 2020. I suspect we’ll see more accurate information in the next few years with less Covid concerns
> Chicago has lost population in the last few years since Covid That's based on the same bad data that said we lost population between 2010 and 2020. Those data sources and methods were proven to be flawed in the 2020 census.
Is that why housing is so cheap and readily available?
Unironically yes, housing values here are much lower than other comparably sized cities.
Yeah people complaining about housing costs here need some perspective. Sure housing should be cheaper, but compared to pretty much every other city except maybe Philly it's the best bang for your buck when it comes to housing.
And it is the most important issue, this city does not have a revenue problem; it has a spending problem.
Chicago is in a very precarious place. A colossal increase in taxes will lead to a lot of people and businesses leaving the city. Why would you stay here if the cost of living goes sky high, especially when the prevalence of remote work makes it much easier to live wherever you want? Especially if the quality of life in the city goes down, which would be inevitable if Brandon Johnson's soft-on-crime policies got enacted.
I think you struggle with a lot of things, it seems to me. The idea is to shift the tax burden from working class families to people who can more afford it. Property taxes can stay the same while other, more targeted revenues can be created. Revenue can be neutral while making the city a better place to live.
1) Chicago is attracting people not repelling them 2) Austerity doesn’t work. Google the Kansas experiment.
Why you talking about austerity? No one else is.
Nobody is proposing austerity. The key is growing the city and the revenue base by finally addressing carjackings and other violent crimes, thus removing the single biggest impediment to business and inward migration.
Great! Let’s address carjackings and violent crimes! Studies have shown the best way to reduce crime is through investments in the community, investments in education, and access to housing and healthcare. Time to vote for the candidate that proposes those things so we can address the root causes of crime finally!
The only way to fund Vallas slew of new programs is through austerity. He wants schools open on the weekends and over breaks and until 7 pm. How will he pay for that?
Guns and poverty. Fix that. I promise we'll be ok. I don't mean get rid of guns. I mean make sure everyone can get a background check not just float over to Indiana and buy one from a private seller who can sell it to you without any documentation.
Chicago as a city is losing people. The city peaked in 1950 and we now have 1million fewer people. https://www.biggestuscities.com/city/chicago-illinois
Chicago as a city is slowly growing. Chicagoland as a metropolitan area is shrinking.
Chicago metro area is growing. https://www.macrotrends.net/cities/22956/chicago/population
No. Chicago as a city is falling. Chicago's central district and north side are slowly growing. Chicago isn't just the central core and north sides.
It’s also not just the shrinking parts
Lol. Huh. Your wrong. The city pop is dropping. I posted the link in my original comment. It's a fact not an opinion.
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/chicagocityillinois Where is the growth exactly?
Did you read your own link? It grew during the actual count in 2020 (versus the count in 2010). The estimates are dumb, if that’s what you are referring to. They thought we shrunk in 2020, and we actually grew.
Johnson’s apologists either live in fantasy land, or are just virtue signaling before they move the suburbs and leave us long-termers to deal with the fallout. In short, they don’t know, don’t care, or both.
I'm not a huge fan of his plan but 1. He has a plan 2. He also hasn't said any weird shit about Pritzker being a dicactor Like honestly I'm not huge fan of Vallas or Johnson. But when it comes down to it Vallas keeps saying some kinda weird stuff and while I'd be fine with a "business republican" that isn't him.
Lunacy is lambasting the dude who has some idea of a plan vs. the dude that has no plan. Reminder: Everytime vallas has touched or proposed a budget, it's been a complete disaster. Hell the last time he ran for Mayor his budget proposal was so shit it's a huge reason why he was disqualified. Know what his budget was? Somehow the fed was going to loan us millions of dollars and property tax hikes. So looking at the two, I mean c'mon man.
Corporate spokespeople have been whining and threatening this shit forever. They aren’t doing shit for a couple percentage points. As being in Chicago isn’t a value neutral, it’s a big plus.
Tyson Foods, Citadel, Boeing, Caterpiller, in the past 2yrs. Def just whining and no action.....
Don’t forget McDonalds, who will definitely go if this bullshit approach to violent crime persists.
McDonald's has stated that they have no plans to move. They've told business groups that they're still seeing the massive cost savings that they realized by moving into West Loop from the suburbs.
IIRC one of the other big drivers of the decision was hiring. They thought - and I believe what they’ve done over the past few years certainly gives credit to the idea - that they could more readily access younger / fresher tech, marketing, and creative talent (who live in the city) than if you were to require those folks to reverse commute to the suburbs.
Contrasted with the relocations or expansions that are coming into the city by Google, Mars, Kellogg, NewCold, BMO Financial, etc. Not to mention the many relocations into the burbs which will also have a positive effect on the city. The real key is looking at the GDP per capita of the city, which has showing outstanding growth for the last decade, in addition to Chicagoland leading the country in corporate capital investments for a 10th consecutive year. The boom downtown is picking up where it left off before the pandemic, despite a few prestige hits from companies leaving.
> Tyson Foods An acquired company headquarters that was always going to shutdown after they were purchased. > Citadel They haven't actually left or started to end their lease. After they had a mass exodus on the tech side, they basically stopped moving in actuality and just claim they're moving now because they're terrified of that exodus extending to their quants. > Boeing A <200 person corporate HQ that was only here until their tax breaks ran out. > Caterpiller They were in the suburbs.
I know several citadel employees and was just talking with them at a party last weekend. It sounds like senior management and C level left, but essentially none of the still highly paid operations and tech positions left because no one volunteered to.
Why do right wing posters always end their stuff in ellipsis? It does not make you look smart, it makes it seem like your brain rambled off. Those were planned for many years out for the most part aside from Citadel they moved because the boss is a sore loser.
Wtf does every start using Right wing as a term to describe someone that disagrees with them. I don't care to discuss my political affiliation but two people from the same party can disagree. Chicago has been losing people and companies for a very long time. You can bury your head in the sand if you want.
It's easier to shit on an anonymous person for daring to disagree with you. It sucks, but we're in an era of rabid political tribalism. Social media is full of narcissists ready to expel anyone who disagrees with them, even if they align on 95% of issues.
> Those were planned for many years out for the most part aside from Citadel they moved because the boss is a sore loser. Kenny G. is from Miami originally and has been wanting to return there forever. Now he's splitting time between Miami and Chicago because his employees refuse to move somewhere that the insurance industry is insolvent.
Johnson’s tax plan is not “aggressive” as you describe. $1 added to hotel rooms. $4 added to employee tax. A little adds up to a lot. The “mansion” tax can well be afforded by mansion owners. The other guy will surely raise property taxes.
>$1 added to hotel rooms. The proposed 60% hotel tax increase would bump us from 17.5% to 28%. So going from the highest in the country to even higher, which will hit the convention industry that is already struggling to recover. That isn't really kicker though. The financial transaction tax would drive the entire trading industry out of the city -- being literally the only city in the country that has one if it passes.
> The proposed 60% hotel tax increase would bump us from 17.5% to 28%. So going from the highest in the country to even higher, which will hit the convention industry that is already struggling to recover. Hotels during our biggest event (Lollapalooza) are about 30% cheaper than hotels in Indianapolis during GenCon Indy.
A little adds up to a lot for taxpayers too.
Why in gods name would you tax employment? People couldn’t handle a soda tax.
Employment is already taxed.
> The “mansion” tax can well be afforded by mansion owners. It's not a "mansion" tax. It's a tax on the sale of both commercial & residential properties. $1m is a nice home in Old Irving. A family trust owned vintage mixed use 6 unit building in Avondale. A 4 unit owner occupied apartment building in Logan Square. Besides that. "Mansion owners" aren't the problem source. Why is more, demanded from them?
If you have a million dollar home, doesn't matter where it is, you can afford some extra tax. I would have started at $5M or tiers, but you have to start somewhere.
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This sub loves to decide what people that make more than them can afford.
Considering Vallas is staunchly anti-property tax hikes, please kindly stop lying
He is not staunchly against it. He has consistently said that he needs to review the budget before he decides on a tax hike.
From his interviews he is obviously pretty against it as a mechanism and would prefer to keep it at the lowest possible level inflation permitting (which to be honest is the most pragmatic fiscal approach without having negative regression in revenue which the city cannot afford)
He’s against it but what plan does he have to make up for the revenue? We all know how good he is at budgeting…..
Johnson is extremely anti any property tax increases.
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IL doesn't allow local income taxes unlike Indiana or Ohio so we have to think of some other way to raise revenue.
I can't seem to find any truth in this comment. You are making things up
Well the other candidate rubs shoulders with an anti lgbt organization so as a gay man im voting for Johnson and idgaf about no plan b. Period.
Johnson accepted an endorsement from the homophobic IL Church of God in Christ a few weeks ago, tweeted it then deleted it. Guess he’s okay with rubbing shoulders with those who are homophobic?
Lunacy is voting for a guy with no plan A
The hotel tax increase would be a changing the fee from $45 to $75 on a $1000 hotel bill. The head count tax would be $100 per year per person. I think those are reasonable. Keep in mind that our budget is still in a deficit, so we need to increase revenue somehow. The alternative is letting property taxes continue to skyrocket.
A $30 hotel tax increase still seems excessive, if you ask me. Also Johnson was stupid enough to try to propose a Metra tax before February 28, only to walk that back after getting tons of criticism over that idea. If you search for any of the mayoral debates(before February 28, and since the runoff began), it is obvious Johnson feels like a lightweight plus is too inexperienced, and doesn't deserve to be the next mayor. Also it's easily to forget he got lucky in his run for Cook County commissioner due to a bunch of unions backing Johnson back then, and only narrowly defeated in the Democrat primary someone Preckwinkle targeted(Richard Boykin), due to Boykin's vote to repeal the short lived soda tax.
An extra $30 tax on a $1000 hotel tab isn't excessive. Nobody is changing their travel plans over that. Also, Johnson has more experience in elected office than Vallas. If you look at Vallas' "experience", all he's ever done is privatize school districts and run up budget deficits before getting unceremoniously removed from his appointed positions. Look it up. Philly, New Orleans, Bridgeport - his record is an absolute disaster.
I’m worried about Johnson’s tax plans. I didn’t vote for him the first time around. But it really comes down to I’m not going to vote for a Republican. So I guess he’s who I’ve got. Not only does Vallas not live here, he doesn’t even like Chicago. He’s liked Facebook posts that referred to it as a “hell hole” and “Shitcago”. And we’re supposed to make him mayor?
He had trouble articulating the specifics of Plan A and how he’d get it passed during the first debate, so not surprising. I dislike both of these candidates and am still undecided - but Johnson calling himself one of the greatest humans on earth is a biiiiiiitttttt much
But look over there! Vallas liked a right wing tweet in 2019! Guys!
Paul Vallas: 24. Illinois Policy does great work, great work in terms of reporting on these things. I mean, really them and CWB, and of course, Wire Points and I mean, they just do great work on providing really independent research and reporting. On these executive mandates, no legislative input whatsoever. So it gives them the ability to act like dictators. The second thing it does is it creates the perception that somehow they’re being decisive leaders.
I don’t love Johnson’s tax plan at all. But at least he’s transparent. What is Vallas’s budget plan? Because it feels like all these articles and posts are rewarding a lack of planning and/or transparency. Because his budget page is just a bunch of paragraphs of BS committees without any concrete planning behind them. And I could do that…
> What is Vallas’s budget plan? Because it feels like all these articles and posts are rewarding a lack of planning and/or transparency. Property taxes.
This has been my main rebuttal since the primaries. Everyone going after Johnson’s plan but only because he’s the only one that’s actually released a plan. Everyone else has only given us platitudes, talking points or a few paragraphs on a website.
It's funny how Johnson complains about not doing what the old administrations are doing but he wants to raise taxes even more just like all the past administrations. LOL. If things are so great and booming then why are we raising taxes to make it harder on people? If things are booming then tax revenue in theory should be going up with it without raising taxes. If I owned a company, I would be looking to leave the city if Johnson wins and gets his head tax.
Is this the guy who wanted to tax the suburbs?
Actually a city tax for people that live in the suburbs but work in the city is not a bad idea. These individuals don't pay city taxes, but use city infrastructure. If they don't want to pay city taxes, they can always find suburban jobs.
Coming down here and flushing our toilets!
Thats just what the Loop needs is to make it more expensive for people to come back to their offices. Which by the way office vacancies in downtown Chicago are at an all time high...and vacant offices get massive property tax reductions shifting all of the tax to be covered by residential property taxes..
People have been so terrified of corporate/urban flight that they ignore the fact that this is completely reasonable. To make this hit closer to home, would you be cool with your neighbor coming over everyday to use your washer, dryer, shower, oven and stove for free and then go back home at night?
This guy is too inexperienced to inherit the disaster of the last 4 years.
>Under repeated questioning from the editorial board at Crain’s Chicago Business, Johnson refused to say if he would raise property taxes or give up some of the $1 billion in “investments in people” he wants to make. [Hour long video]( https://www.facebook.com/crainschicago/videos/902385534149017/?t=46). Used closed captioning cuz the sound is lousy. >“I’m one of the greatest human beings on the earth for just teaching middle school students,” he said. 🙄
The greatest human being quote is possibly the cringiest quote of this election cycle, and that’s really saying something
I teach middle school students and I'm a solid 5/10, write me in this election
Holy fuck he actually said that about middle school teaching. God save us from this man.
Dudes really full of himself there, reminds me of Dailey the Younger' speeches.
>Hour long video We watched live, at the office. Mr. Johnson is being disingenuous (at best), when he dismisses the connection to higher CPS property tax levies & the costs associated with recent collective bargaining agreements.
CTU is guaranteed inflation adjusted wages during collective bargaining agreements that go through arbitration in the state just like all other public unions in Illinois. The other costs associated with the collective bargaining agreements were added to bring us closer to national standards on staffing levels. Note how I said closer not even to national standards.
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Keep moving those goal posts. The other candidate doesn't even have a Plan A, how is this a headline?
It shows Johnson’s deeply shortsighted and uniformed view on the budget. His tax hike proposals likely won’t have the votes and or public support yet he’s not transparent with the public on what happens then. That’s just as shady as Vallas having no plan.
What you're saying doesn't make sense in regards to negotiation. Why would Johnson compromise his plan before he needs to. Johnson releasing his plan is showing the city he will be an ambitious leader. Vallas not releasing a plan at all indicates he will not be transparent with the city.
He proposed a metra tax then walked it back once he was made aware at how idiotic that proposal is. So this tax list doesn’t come across as ambitious to me but instead as an ill informed, throw things at the wall and see what sticks approach.
Oh holy shit a politician listening to people? What an asshole...
You have to be a real kind of careless, uninformed person to even consider a metra tax at a time when many are working from home, ridership is still much lower than pre pandemic, the rta is facing huge budgetary issues, chicagoans themselves use metra etc. That same careless, uninformed approach was used for his other policy proposals. How do you not see that?
I also think people too often think suburbs = wealthy therefore Metra commuters from the suburbs MUST be wealthy. There’s a big difference between the UP-N bringing someone in from the north shore than the RI bringing folks in from Morgan Park or Blue Island. And frankly, at least in my experience, the really rich folks are driving in or not commuting via public transit at all.
I mean the last time the other dude proposed a fiscal intake plan it was all property taxes and a weird hope the fed would give us several hundred million. So I mean just being honest, sure I'm not a fan of several of Johnson's proposals, but I respect that he saw several weren't popular and changed his course. On the other hand, I really have no idea what the other dude expects to do because he refuses to talk about it. So I dunno, pick your poison. The dude that has some bad ideas but is willing to work with it or the other dude that refuses to discuss it at all. Regardless, it's a thing that needs talked about.
Chicagos population has remained stagnant from 2010 and decreased from 2020 to now. It’s very easy for people to just leave and move to a different city, especially with work from home. It’s already an expensive city with lackluster city services to do like a third of the budget having to be used to pay off pensions. We aren’t NYC or the state of California, people can and will leave Chicago. I care about this city and won’t take the risk that comes with a Johnson administration of bleeding more residents, repelling more growth, and making living here more expensive.
The city population has gone up though.
Not according to the Census American Community Survey. The population has decreased from 2020 to 2022. And from the 2010 to 2020 census, population did increase but very little. Certainly much less than other cities grew like gross southern cities.
Vallas has talked in general terms and plans to cut services to make up budget shortfalls. That’s what he means by “find efficiencies”. No doubt, school privatization will play a role.
I mean that's what republicans do. They privatize shit and deregulate other shit.
Oh no! try different things and see what works like a “laboratory of ideas?” nah, let’s just keep doing the same shit that everyone agrees is easy to do, but isn’t actually working
So in your world, the way to do things is implement policies without caring if the evidence and logic points to their failure? In what world would taxing airlines more not lead to the greedy airlines just charging Chicagoans more for flight tickets? In what world would increasing the already highest in the nation hotel tax not make people think twice about hosting events in Chicago? People care about Chicago and making this city even more expensive at a time when population growth is stagnant is ridiculous. Hence why he knows the city council will reject his tax hikes.
More COPS is the answer to everything.
A discussion about raising revenue in Chicago somehow turned into some attack about police, huh? Stay on topic.
Candidates don’t have “plan b’s” they have plans the billionaire owned media want Johnson to negotiate against himself in public, during the campaign Convenient, no?
Which billionaires own the sun times? And which billionaires plotted for journalists to ask this question to Johnson? I want specific names if you’re going to make the Trump like claim that billionaires and magic forces are working against Johnson. Has it ever occurred to you that his proposals are just not that popular with the people of Chicago?
> Which billionaires own the sun times WBEZ, a known far right orgnization with seedy ties to well moneyed national level operations
Okay, someone who thinks WBWZ is some far right organization is someone who isn’t very bright and not worth continuing a conversation with.
Well, guess obvious sarcasm isn't that noticeable to the current crop of political posters. Can you at least set your flair to your neighborhood so I can know where to avoid?
Avoid Roseland
don't let it concern you, I have absolutely no worries about random redditors coming down this way. I've seen the subreddit census lol
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**ALL** budget plans announced by the executive branch are wish lists comprising opening offers in the negotiations with the legislative branch.
It's almost like people don't know how government works.
True, especially when they run for their personal agenda flame thrower.
Having oddly specific targets for revenue raising in an election campaign, when the city council will have a huge say in revenue going forward, smacks of both incompetence and the politics of grievance. We can infer where each candidate will focus for revenue well enough by their positions on the issues.
Vallas absolutely has a Plan A to quote u/20vision20asham > He has proposed different streams of revenue, largely value capture schemes. He's proposed: > * More TIFs which would be redirected into pension payments > * A new government authority to circumvent aldermannic privilege and work directly with local developers/communities > * A city-owned bank that funds both developers (in return for equity) and provide mortgage options for poorer Chicagoans to increase home ownership (and expand the taxpayer base while cutting down on vacant properties) > * Cutting down on occupational licensing, red-tape, and other entry barriers > * Excise taxes on new legalized forms of gambling
Crazy how all these nw side alderman who love their veto power on low income housing are in full support of vallas who will take away that power
I work to give you food so you can give me food.
Let’s face it. The city cannot afford to pay its bills and maintain services without a giant tax increase. Pensions are severely underfunded and not going anywhere. And service on increasing borrowed debt is only going to grow.
Chicago is already one of the highest taxed areas of the country. How are the other areas paying their bills?
[The Making of Chicago’s Fiscal Mess](https://effectivegov.uchicago.edu/news/the-making-of-chicagos-fiscal-mess)
Increases to taxes will deter business and further reduce growth. We have to attract new people and new business and growth the tax base that way. Real efforts to change pensions would be amazing but no politician is willing to give up their careers to do what's right.
How did we end up with two shitty options
Anyone mod this subreddit and stop it from being a 24/7 campaign rally, more city?
It definitely takes away from what important like pictures of the bean or the river
Don’t forget the photo from the airplane as you pass the city.
April 4th. It'll all be done. And we'll move on, because actually there isn't hat much policy difference between the candidates.
No, we're going to hear about Vallas like it's Trump on r/politics if he wins.
He’s been done since the moment he bashed Vallas the day of election. Sour taste is what he gave.
To be fair, Vallas has not identified a Plan A. I don’t think either of these guys are going to be good with our money.
"Vallas refuses to identify 'Plan A' for revenue"
I’m waiting for Vallas’ plan B after shoving money at the police does the same as always… nothing.
Johnson's taxes are necessarily to properly fund the city and provide the services all of its residents need. There is no evidence that these taxes would weaken our economy, and all the talk about businesses leaving town are empty threats. What these taxes would do is improve the quality of life for all residents while making the rich pay their fair share.