ALBANY PARK, Chicago — Chicago has until December 30th to pass the budget for Fiscal Year 2026 or face an unprecedented city government shutdown, as stated by WTTW. As it stands, there are two budget proposals on the table: the mayor’s “Protecting Chicago Budget” versus “the alternative budget”.
The central tension is the matter of who should pay more to balance the city budget: corporations or working people?
Progressives in city council, including 33rd Ward Alderperson Rossana Rodríguez Sánchez, have championed the “Protecting Chicago Budget”. It focuses on balancing the budget on the backs of rich corporations like Amazon, Google, and Target by re-establishing a “corporate head tax” of $33 a month per employee for companies with 500 or more workers. It is important to highlight that this head tax was originally instituted by Mayor Richard J. Daley in the 1970s, until Mayor Rahm Emanuel (aka “Mayor 1%) killed it in 2014, as documented by The Triibe.
Far from a “job killer”, this head tax existed during, and helped fund, the revival of Chicago.
It could do so again.
The Protecting Chicago Budget’s key tenets include:
A tax on companies with over 500 employees, which would amount to 175 companies like Walmart, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Accenture
Raising youth employment by 5,100 positions
Funding Chicago Public Schools for the next school year using a TIF surplus
Securing funding for mental health care services
On the other hand, a group of alders committed to opposing the corporate head tax, at the risk of a government shutdown, has taken form. Alders Brian Hopkins (2nd Ward), Pat Dowell (3rd Ward), Desmon Yancy (5th Ward), Greg Mitchell (7th Ward), Michelle Harris (8th Ward), Anthony Beale (9th Ward), Peter Chico (10th Ward), Nicole Lee (11th Ward), Stephanie Coleman (17th Ward), Derrick Curtis (18th Ward), Matt O'Shea (19th Ward), Ronnie Mosley (21st Ward), Monique Scott (24th Ward), Felix Cardona (31st Ward), Scott Waguespack (32nd Ward), Bill Conway (34th Ward), Gilbert Villegas (36th Ward), Emma Mitts (37th Ward), Nicholas Sposato (38th Ward), Samantha Nugent (39th Ward), Anthony Napolitano (41st Ward), Brendan Reilly (42nd Ward), Timmy Knudsen (43rd Ward), Bennett Lawson (44th Ward), James Gardiner (45th Ward), Debra Silverstein (50th Ward) have led the charge to defend corporations and charge the city’s debt to everyday Chicagoans instead.
This “Corporate Caucus” of the city council wants to remove the head tax on corporations completely and instead, as is too often the case, tax our working families. Their alternative budget includes:
Taxing beer and liquor sales
Letting large corporations off the hook, even after receiving federal tax breaks signed into law by President Donald Trump
Covering the city’s light poles, vehicles and iconic bridgehouses in tacky advertisements
Allowing video poker and slot machines in every Chicago bar and restaurant with a liquor license
Collecting millions of dollars from already struggling Chicagoans by selling off the debts owed to the city for services such as ambulance rides, utility bills, and other debts
While an improvement from their original proposal that cut 5,100 proposed youth jobs and raised garbage fees, the current version of the Corporate Caucus’ plan still has some questions to answer. The revenue projections from their plan, which were not even released until the very start of the Committee on Finance meeting on Tuesday, have already been dismissed by the city’s top finance officials as lacking “a clear evidentiary basis” and cannot be relied on.
The facts are clear: the head tax is not a job killer, our communities are already struggling to make ends meet as it is, and many of the alders who don’t want to tax large corporations are coincidentally funded by billionaire Michael Sacks. Illinois already has the 8th most unfair and regressive tax system in the country, with the lowest 20% paying over double the taxes of the top 1% as a share of total income. Adding even more sales and excise taxes will make this burden even worse.
TAKE ACTION:
Follow this link ( http://bit.ly/fightforfunds ) to sign up for ways to fight for a budget for the many and not the few!
There will be phonebanking on Friday (12/19) and Sunday (12/21) as well as multiple opportunities for public comment, as organized by People's Unity Platform and The Public Health & Safety Campaign.