LAKEVIEW — Mayor Brandon Johnson defended his administration’s budget priorities at a town hall in Lakeview, arguing the City Council weakened the plan by rejecting new taxes on large corporations and replacing them with revenue measures that could shift costs onto residents.
The administration’s proposal sought to close Chicago’s budget gap by asking the city’s largest and wealthiest companies to contribute more, rather than relying on new fees and other measures that could disproportionately affect working-class residents, Johnson said.
But the final budget approved by City Council in December removed several of those proposed corporate taxes, replacing them with alternative revenue ideas that Johnson and members of his administration say rely on uncertain projections and could create financial problems in the years ahead…