How to balance Chicago's budget without property tax hikes: Civic Federation offers its options

CHICAGO (WLS) - Mayor Brandon Johnson is two weeks away from presenting his budget recommendations and Wednesday a fiscal watchdog group offered a series of options and recommendations, especially avoiding a property tax hike if at all possible.

The city is facing a budget deficit approaching $1 billion, and solving it is likely going to require a mix of cuts and hikes, meaning the mayor and city council will have to make a lot of hard choices.

ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7.to watch The Civic Federation urged Johnson to try and balance the budget without a property tax hike.

"At this particular moment, we're in the middle of a triennial reassessment during a time in which commercial real estate values are suppressed, which means residential property taxes will be going up as a consequence of that," said Joe Ferguson, president of the Civic Federation.

Ferguson said with Chicago Public Schools likely to ask for a property tax hike to help with its own fiscal crisis, the city should not further pile on homeowners.

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But during an interview with ABC7's Mark Rivera today, Johnson suggested property tax hikes could be needed.

"But I can say this for certain, that services that the people of Chicago have relied upon, whatever we do we have to ensure that those services remain," the mayor said.

The Civic Federation offered a number of other revenue options that include hiking the city's liquor tax, implementing a 1% tax on groceries, adding video gaming, or hiking the fee for garbage collection, which the mayor's budget committee chair, Ald. Jason Ervin, said is a non-starter.

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"The garbage taxes charge the lady that's on fixed income the same as a millionaire. I don't think that's necessarily what you should," Ervin said.

But the Civic Federation's report is first focused on recommendations for how the city can cut costs before raising revenue. They include considering furloughs and eliminating vacant positions, which are currently estimated at more than 2,500.

"56 We carry them, even though we don't fill them year to year to year. It begs the question, why are they there? Right, to cut vacancies actually tends to involve the use of political capital, which the mayor appears reluctant to expend," Ferguson said.

"I don't want cuts, I don't want layoffs," Johnson said.