On Saturday, December 20th Chicago’s city council passed the 2026 budget, and Mayor Brandon Johnson is expected to sign it.
We fought hard to make sure programs we care about were funded in this budget, We also fought to make sure that the $1 billion budget gap our city faced was filled by taxing Big Tech and Big Corporations, and not by cutting services or taxing everyday Chicagoans. We didn’t get everything we wanted, but we did have some significant wins.
We worked with two coalitions this budget cycle, People’s Unity Platform and Public Health and Safety, and together we won some big fights that will help protect our communities and improve the lives of real Chicagoans. These wins include:
Alders Angela Clay (46), Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth (48), and Maria Hadden (49) fully supported our work throughout the process.
To make this happen, many of us at ONE Northside canvassed, made phone calls to their neighbors, called and emailed their alderperson, and marched in the streets to demand a budget that would protect and increase critical services, even in the face of a $1 billion budget shortfall. There are large amounts of wealth in our city and we knew this was an opportunity to force corporations who are profiting from Trump’s tax cuts to pay their part to help protect Chicagoans.
This budget process also included other important wins from other folks in our community, including protecting funding for open roles in libraries and funding for gender-based violence services.
One disappointment is that a key source of funding we were fighting for, the Corporate Head Tax, also known as a Community Safety Surcharge, was not included in the final budget. Mayor Johnson included this tax in the Protecting Chicago budget, but 29 alderpeople refused to support it. This tax charges corporations with over 500 employees $33 per month per employee and would raise ~$82 million/year. It only effects the largest 1% of corporations in Chicago. Four north side alderpeople Timmy Knudsen (43), Bennett Lawson (44), Scott Waguespack (32) and Debra Silverstein (50) were among the 29 alderpeople who created an alternate budget with their own proposals. Instead of the funding that would come from the Corporate Head Tax, they are selling debt individuals owe the City to private debt collectors. This includes debts like parking tickets and ambulance fees. Other measures in this budget include raising the grocery bag tax from $.10 to $.15, raising the liquor tax, and legalizing video gambling machines.
These alderpeople made a choice to further burden poor and working-class Chicagoans by selling debts to aggressive debt-collectors and raising taxes and fees on everyday Chicagoans instead of placing a fee on the largest 1% of corporations.
Alders Andre Vasquez (40) and Matt Martin (47) stood with us on most items we fought for, and voted no on the harmful aspects of the budget that was passed, but prioritized pushing for a final proposal that did not include more borrowing and that did make the full pension payments. As a result, they were opposed to both budget options on the table.
In summary, we come out of this budget season with important wins that moved the needle on the need for taxing the ultra-rich and big corporations. We are also clear-eyed about who opposes our vision for a city government that is just and equitable as well as the power we need to build going into next year’s budget.
We now turn our attention to Springfield, where the state legislature and governor must take up the fight on funding critical programs and services by making Big Corporations, Big Tech, Billionaires and Big Polluters pay their fair share. With the attacks on programs coming from the Trump administration, it is more critical than ever that Illinois take action.
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