Budget talks stall after offer to drop plan to raise garbage collection fees fails to sway Mayor Johnson

A City Council majority determined to block a corporate head tax, fully fund a pension advance and avoid borrowing for operating expenses vowed Monday to forge ahead with approval of its alternative spending plan after an offer to freeze garbage collection fees failed to satsify Mayor Brandon Johnson.

Eleven opposition alderpersons emerged from a 35-minute meeting with Johnson claiming their first negotiating session aimed at averting an unprecedented shutdown of city government was “not productive.”

Johnson pretty much agreed.

A top mayoral aide said after each participant gave opening remarks, the moderate and conservative alderpersons left the mayor’s office to caucus among themselves and never returned to talk specific numbers. Nor would they identify replacements for the $35 million in anticipated garbage fee revenue and say where they would find the $6.2 million needed to restore youth funding to the levels that Johnson proposed.

“They literally witheld that information from me and my team. Never in my life have I ever seen the level and the degree of obstinance coming from a legislative branch,” Johnson said. “What reasonable conclusion we can come to without having a chance to review their proposal [is] that they’re prepared to cut services and personnel. This is short-sighted and, quite frankly, a disappointment because I came to the table with an open mind.”

Finance Chair Pat Dowell (3rd) and Northwest Side Ald. Samantha Nugent (39th) said financial details of the group’s revised package — with no garbage fee hike and no corporate head tax — would be revealed at Tuesday’s Finance Committee meeting.

That’s when they hope to move their alternative plan through Dowell’s committee — with confidence they are moving closer to the 34 votes they would need to override a mayoral veto.

“We’re getting there. Our colleagues are really receptive to the idea of the garbage tax being removed and the fact that we’re really committed to the [full] advanced pension payment,” Nugent told the Sun-Times.

As for the meeting with Johnson, Nugent said, “I just wish it could have been a tad more collegial.”

Dowell said Johnson spent “most of the time talking about how our numbers were not accurate and our projections were not good.”

“That’s not true. We have spent the last few weeks working with municipal experts and budgeteers putting together an alternative proposal and we’re very confident of our numbers,” Dowell said. “He basically indicated that he didn’t believe our budget was balanced… The question came up, would he veto a budget that did not have a head tax in it, and he refused to answer.”

Before the budget talks, Johnson welcomed the garbage tax concession that hewed to what he called “my advocacy for working people,” even as he argued that the alternative plan had “missed the mark in terms of their revenue projections.”

The mayor refused to say whether he would veto a budget that includes revenue estimates he believes fall short and could force the City Council to approve a mid-year tax increase. He said only that there is “always wiggle room,” adding, “we’re glad that they’re coming to the conclusion that we already came to” that the garbage fee is “not the right path forward.”

A few hours later, negotiations broke down, edging Chicago closer to a city government shutdown.

Last week, the opposition aldermen introduced their revised alternative spending plan and scheduled a series of successive Council meetings this week in hopes of reaching a deal.

It included a newly revised, $15 a month garbage collection fee, lifting the ban on video gambling in Chicago, and raising taxes and fees for off-premise liquor sales, rides on Uber and Lyft and short-term vacation rentals — and steered clear of short-term financial fixes that threaten Chicago’s beleaguered bond rating.

The reduced garbage collection fee was not enough to satisfy a handful of alderpersons, including Ronnie Mosley (21st), who removed his name from the list of members supporting the alternative to Johnson’s budget.

In an effort to move closer to 34 votes needed to override a mayoral veto, the alternative spending plan was tweaked yet again over the weekend. The garbage fee was removed entirely. Youth jobs were restored to the number included in Johnson’s proposed $16.6 billion budget. Funding for the Chicago Public Library’s collection budget and gender-based violence were also fully restored.

Without the garbage collection fee hike, the only political hills that Johnson has to die on are the revenue estimates and the corporate head tax. His latest version includes a $33 a month per employee fee on companies with 500 or more employees.