The liar in chief backpedals from his CFO’s lapse in actually telling the truth
In most American cities, the only certainties are death and taxes. In Chicago, we’ve improved on that. Here, the only sure things are death, taxes, debt, and lies — and you’ll probably get all four in the same news cycle.
Just this week, we were treated to yet another episode of the long-running political farce known as “Budget Season,” with a guest appearance by Brandon Johnson’s own Chief Financial Officer, Jill Jaworski, who told Bloomberg that a property tax hike is “likely” due to a yawning $1 billion deficit.
You might think that kind of news would trigger alarms. But in Chicago, it barely registers. We’ve been lied to for so long and taxed so hard that another hit to the wallet feels less like robbery and more like tradition.
The great gaslight: “It’s too early to say”
Mayor Johnson, naturally, attempted to backpedal. He claimed that nothing is decided, that “a working group” is still formulating ideas, and that it’s “too early” to say what the final package will be. That’s code for: The tax hike is coming, but we’re still trying to figure out how to blame someone else for it.
This is the same mayor who floated a $300 million property tax hike last year — only to get slapped down by the City Council in a stunning 50-0 vote. Now, facing a threefold bigger deficit, he’s pretending that he hasn’t already been briefed on the inevitable.
Johnson could, of course, fall back on the automatic inflation-linked property tax increase, capped at five percent, to save face. But let’s not kid ourselves — that’s still a tax hike, and one that hits homeowners precisely when inflation has already gutted their purchasing power.
As 13th Ward Alderman Marty Quinn bluntly put it:
“I don’t think Chicagoans trust the mayor with the checkbook, frankly.”
No kidding. Chicagoans have watched the numbers not add up since Harold Washington was mayor. And under Johnson, we’ve replaced basic arithmetic with progressive alchemy. The formula is simple: Spend like a socialist, tax like a robber baron, and call it justice.
Taxed to death
While the mayor dithers, regular people are paying the price. Literally.
Chicago already has the highest sales tax in the country. You pay to park. You pay to bag your groceries. You pay a surcharge on your Uber. And now, you might be paying hundreds more on your property tax bill — for what? Fewer police? Slower 911 response? More consultants?
And don’t forget: Johnson ran on the promise not to raise taxes on working families. But as Nicole Loury from Austin told ABC 7: “It’s taxes, on top of taxes, on top of taxes, on top of taxes.” Even folks just trying to keep their homes feel like they’re being targeted.
It’s not just anecdotal. The middle class is quietly being pushed out of Chicago — not by bullets, not by bad schools, not by traffic — but by budgetary abuse disguised as equity. That’s the real progressive accomplishment here.
Borrow now, lie later
Of course, you can’t talk about taxes without talking about debt. Chicago is $37 billion in the hole when you add up unfunded pension liabilities, general obligation bonds, and other long-term obligations. That’s roughly $40,000 per taxpayer.
So where does Johnson think the money is coming from to fund his utopian wish list? Not from new businesses — the real estate market is chilling, investment is slowing, and developers are fleeing to friendlier cities. And certainly not from Springfield, where the state has its own structural deficits. Maybe the Trump White House will save us — just kidding.
No, it’ll come from more debt. More IOUs. More can-kicking. Because in Chicago, the only thing more reliable than a new tax is a new bond issuance nobody reads.
And what’s the return on this investment? Public safety? Nope. Educated productive students? Surely you jest.
Death and denial
And then there’s death, which in Chicago often arrives via 9mm.
This July, the city’s murder rate surged again, and the carnage included not just known gang members but random passersby and innocent children. But City Hall still insists that things are improving — if you adjust for context, if you look at the year-over-year, if you ignore the dead bodies.
When faced with rising violence, the Johnson administration leans on its usual rhetorical crutches: Root causes, historical trauma, and systems of oppression. What it refuses to lean on is law enforcement because enforcing laws might offend someone on X.
Public safety has become a political abstraction, managed by narrative rather than action. But for the families planning funerals this summer, the stakes are very real.
Lies as policy
Finally, we come to the crown jewel of the Chicago political experience: The lie. It’s not just a tactic here — it’s an ethos.
Johnson tells us he’s leading a working-class revolution, but the only people getting paid are politically connected nonprofits and campaign-aligned “equity consultants.” He says he’s restoring trust, but he governs behind closed doors with handpicked task forces. He says he’s a man of the people, but every policy seems to be designed to serve the loudest fringe of the progressive base.
The latest lie, of course, is that the property tax hike isn’t happening. It is. They’re just trying to find a way to disguise it — automatic inflator, new “levy,” maybe even a “fee restructure.” Whatever it is, it’ll be spun as necessary, righteous, and somehow the fault of capitalism.
As Alderman Silvana Tabares rightly noted: “We need to see somewhere we’re going to cut in this budget, and residents cannot continue getting squeezed out with taxes and fees.” That’s a voice of common sense in a sea of moral grandstanding.
Welcome to the working group
So now we wait for the mayor’s “working group” — a cabal of civic insiders, union representatives, and political appointees — to return from their August huddle with recommendations. They’ll speak in the language of “comprehensive approaches,” “progressive revenue tools,” and “transformational change.”
And then they’ll hit you with the bill.
Because in Chicago, nothing ever gets fixed. It just gets renamed, refinanced, or rerouted into another task force.
Death. Taxes. Debt. Lies.
Those are the only things you can truly count on in this city.
