(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Advocates for immigrants and the homeless are reacting to gaps in Mayor Brandon Johnson’s newly proposed 2025 budget for Chicago, when it comes to funding migrant and homeless services.
At a rally just outside City Hall Thursday, a coalition of local immigrant leaders pitched a few ways to increase hundreds of millions of dollars for these services.
The solution revolves around three words, said Rose Shapiro, Community Development Manager at the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, “tax the rich”. That was chanted over and over at the rally.
“There is at least three times the needed amount of revenue being left on the table year after year. This is money the city can collect on its own without any state action or a ballot initiative.”
The coalition is proposing four solutions for the city council to explore before approving any budget. They include bringing back Chicago’s big business head tax and raising the city’s jet fuel tax.
One of the most profound is a “Payment in Lieu of Taxes”, in which the city could charge the property tax exempt, wealthier non-profits a fee. This was most recently done in Boston, said Shapiro.