Mayor Brandon Johnson may try again to convince Chicago voters to pass his “Bring Chicago Home” referendum, a top mayoral aide said Thursday, arguing that ballot questions in California and elsewhere normally “don’t get passed the first time.”
Cristina Pacione-Zayas, the former state senator now serving as Johnson’s chief of staff, said the second time could be the charm for a referendum likely to gain steam amid the political rush to confront the affordability crisis in Chicago and around the nation.
“If you look at the research, [referendums do] not get passed the first time around. And actually each time you are able to get it out and continue to build on the educational foundation for the voters, you do end up finding success,” Pacione-Zayas told the Sun-Times. “That’s what California has been able to prove [by] how many times they’ve brought things forth that they brought forth in the past.”
The mayor’s signature plan to raise the transaction tax on high-end property transactions to generate $100 million annually to combat homelessness was rejected in March, 2024 by 54% of Chicago voters.
The 15,398-vote differential in that low-turnout election followed a multi-media blitz that saw business and real estate interests spend $2 million to defeat the proposed tax, which would have applied to $1 million-plus transactions.
On the day after that embarrassing defeat, Johnson insisted there were “a lot more yeses” still out there in neighborhoods most affected by the housing crisis, and he needed to “continue to organize to make sure that we’re bringing our neighbors along who may not be as impacted by this issue.”
Pacione-Zayas made a similar argument about the need to better educate voters. She accused business and real estate interests of having “engaged in a significant disinformation campaign” that tricked voters into believing that the mayor wanted to raise their property taxes.
A similar campaign bankrolled by billionaire businessman Ken Griffin doomed Gov. JB Pritzker’s push for an amendment to the Illinois Constitution that would have authorized a graduated income tax, Pacione-Zayas said.
“We have to look at that mapping and really look at where did we have the pluses and minuses… What are the specific tactics that we can employ to make sure that people fully understand?” she said. “Sometimes, these things are confusing to people… Because there historically has been mistrust in government, you’re definitely at a disadvantage in terms of the messaging campaign.”
Pacione-Zayas noted that Chicago’s five-year blueprint to combat homelessness underscores the need for the mayor to try again.
“Surprise, surprise. The big finding in the way we address homelessness is making sure that we have affordable housing and we have the resources to provide… the wrap-around supports for people who are experiencing homelessness. And how do you do that? You obviously need to have revenue and, ideally, a dedicated revenue stream,” she said.
Chicago is coming off a grueling budget season that saw a 30-member coalition led by conservative and moderate alderpersons reject the mayor’s corporate head tax and seize control over the budget process for the first time in decades.
It’s left the mayor’s relationship with an emboldened City Council more strained than ever. Animosity lingers from the tactics the Chicago Teachers Union used to intimidate alderspersons who rejected the head tax.
Pacione-Zayas argued Thursday that Johnson, a former paid organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union, has no control over the union that bankrolled his mayoral campaign. She argued that the budget battle that’s relatively new to Chicago happens every year in Springfield, where lawmakers fly blind until a thousand pages are dropped on their desks just hours before the final vote.
The only difference is, Chicagoans have not yet adjusted to the change in political climate.
“We’re in a very different time. We have a very different Council… External forces in the federal government. That puts additional pressure on how elected officials show up and advocate for their constituents… Because we’re doing this out loud and in real time, people want to characterize it as the mayor does not have control,” she said.
“We’re dealing with structural problems that have compounded over time,” Pacione-Zayas added. “It’s going to get intense about what continues to get funded, who continues to get the benefits who will have to [bear the] burden.”
Asked what Johnson needs to do to reverse his City Council struggles, the chief of staff said it’s a two-way street.
“The onus is not on the mayor. The onus is on all parties to work collaboratively in service of the people of Chicago,” she said.