CHICAGO (WLS) — The Chicago City Council meets Wednesday as a deadline looms to settle budget battle.
Mayor Brandon Johnson has made a change to the most controversial part of his proposal.
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City Council has until the end of the year to pass a budget.
One of the major sticking points in negotiations is Mayor Johnson’s corporate head tax, which would now charge companies with more than 500 employees $33 per employee each month.
Previously Johnson wanted to tax companies with just 100 employees in the city at $21 per employee per month.
The mayor says under the revised model, 175 companies in the city would be taxed.
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Opponents to the mayor’s plan said this proposal is bad for business in Chicago while Johnson is digging in.
“All these small inputs like a head tax determine whether or not a big employer moves to a city like Chicago and this is simply another symbol of why you shouldn’t come here and I think it is a big, big mistake,” Alderman Brendan Reilly said.
“These huge corporations are not going to make a financial decision based upon what could be a rounding error,” Johnson said.
More than half of council now supports an alternative budget, which the mayor rejected.
It calls for a higher liquor tax, rideshare congestion fees and a larger garbage collection fee.
An alternative budget could be introduced during Wednesday’s council meeting, but it’s not seeming likely at this point.
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