CHICAGO () — Some Chicago city workers, including police officers, could be at risk of layoffs this fall as Mayor Brandon Johnson and a City Council budget accountability coalition trade blame over a projected $98 million midyear budget gap.
The Johnson administration detailed the shortfall in its latest budget update, reigniting tensions over revenue proposals that have stalled, possible job cuts and the future of a planned $260 million advance pension payment.
Speaking at a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Bronzeville, Johnson took aim at aldermen who opposed his proposed corporate head tax during last year’s budget talks.
“We’re talking about workers, right? But that’s what we talked about during the budget season,” Johnson said. “The city council obviously did not place the interests of workers above the interests of these big conglomerate corporations.”
Johnson argued that the council’s replacement revenue ideas have failed to bring in money, helping create the deficit. Finance Committee Chairwoman Pat Dowell pushed back, saying those proposals were already included in the approved budget and that the administration has been slow to carry them out.
“We’ve come up with solutions, and they’re baked into the budget. We need the administration to implement the budget,” Dowell said. “As you heard yesterday, a lot of the things that we wanted to pursue, they’ve taken their sweet time to do that.”
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City officials have indicated that if layoffs are required to generate meaningful savings, the police department may not be exempt. John Catanzara Jr., president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said cutting sworn officers would put the city at risk.
“We’re in the middle of the most violent part of the year, historically speaking,” Catanzara said. “There’s a lot of unknowns within the police department in the city at the moment, and taking sworn police officers off the street, couldn’t be a dumber idea for anybody to even utter those words out loud.”
Dowell said layoffs are not the only option and pointed to potential efficiencies, including an employee buyout program.
“I threw out an idea yesterday about an employee buyout, which they haven’t even evaluated. So, to me, this is scare tactics,” she said.
Johnson also reiterated his push for new taxes targeting wealthy residents and large corporations.
“That strategy failed,” he said of the council’s alternative revenue plan. “Now city council has to come back to the table and come up with something that’s going to ensure that our budget is not just structurally sound, but of course we challenge those with means to put more skin in the game.”
With an election year ahead and both sides emphasizing different revenue priorities, reaching a compromise could prove difficult.
