Another day, another lie pushed out by City Hall
Mayor Brandon Johnson has puffed himself up as Chicago's savior claiming he has miraculously implemented a balanced budget for 2026. But Johnson must be living in some sort of phantom zone because an independent audit shows the City of Chicago is suffering an astonishing $41.1 billion budget deficit.
Johnson has been fighting tooth-and-nail for a whole suite of new and higher taxes, of course. He has brayed time and again for his destructive business head tax, saying that without it, he can't balance the budget. He wanted to tax social media companies for every user they have within the city limits. And has pushed for even higher taxes on homeowners and business owners despite that both are now taxed at some of the highest rates in the nation.
All this so he can keep throwing more than $600 million at illegal aliens. And that is on top of the more than $3 billion lavished on illegals by the state of Illinois.
Unfortunately for Brandon, he has been unable to convince the City Council to rubber stamp a good portion of his grandiose tax schemes, which is really saying something because the Chicago City Council has for decades been notorious as the sitting mayor's rubber stamp.
But miracles do happen, apparently, because the poor-mouthing mayor has suddenly announced he has saved us again, and has balanced the budget despite losing his battle for higher taxes!
In October, Johnson claimed he had submitted a balanced budget, and in a press release said, "Mayor Johnson keeps promise of making strategic investments while balancing $16.6 billion budget without raising property taxes."
Well, hallelujah!
Oh, but wait. An independent audit says the mayor is exaggerating just a tiny bit and to the tune of a mere $41.1 billion deficit that he somehow didn't notice in his rush to pat himself on the back for a job well done.
The longtime government budget watchdog outfit Truth In Accounting has thrown a flag on Ol' Brandon's play with an independent audit that shows there is nothing balanced in Johnson's little world, especially his budget.
So, how was this balancing trick played on the people of Chicago?
Truth in Accounting CEO Sheila Weinberg shows us Johnson's smoke and mirrors.
"They only include the expenses they’ve paid, not all the expenses they’ve incurred. They also include loan proceeds as revenue and still claim the budget is balanced. In the real world, borrowing money to balance your budget would be insane. But in government budgeting, that’s how they do it," Weinberg told The Center Square.
Weinberg also pointed out that the Chicago Public Schools and the park district were excluded from the Johnson’s calculations.
She also pointed out Johnson didn’t properly report the city's pension bomb in his "balanced" budget, either, and noted the city's unfunded pension liability is eight times bigger than the city's total payroll.
"They fully fund the statutory requirement, not the actuarially determined contribution," Weinberg explained. "That statutory requirement is far less than what the actuaries say they should be paying."
Unsurprisingly, Chicago earned a grade of "F" for its budget and finances, and the burden is high on citizens with a taxpayer burden of $42,600 per taxpayer. Only New York City ranked worse.
Despite the hard facts, Johnson is claim to be the “fiscally responsible” mayor.
Johnson even pretended he is acting the tough guy by laying off a few city workers and he blamed the city council's budget plans for the job loss. Early this month the administration announced nine City Hall custodians were sent to the unemployment lines with Johnson acting as if he saved the city billions. But, in the end, all he did was single out a few of the lowest paid workers to act as his sacrificial lambs.
He didn't lay a finger on the many political hires in officers at the top of City Hall, people who make hundreds of thousands a year for dubious jobs.
Alderman Gilbert Villegas (36) wasn't fooled by Johnson's bluster.
"These are the smallest of the small companies [city contractors], and these are the lowest of the lowest paid, and for the mayor to pick on the smallest paid workers is troubling," Villegas said. "It’s unfortunate that he’s trying to pawn it off on the City Council."
As always, it's just smoke and mirrors with this profligate mayor.
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