Chicago City Council votes to set 30-vote threshold for future borrowing, but Mayor Brandon Johnson signals possible veto

Chicago aldermen on Tuesday voted to require at least 30 members of the City Council to approve any future plans to borrow money, seeking to make it tougher to add to the city's mountain of debt, but Mayor Brandon Johnson signaled he might veto the measure.

With debt payments and employee pension obligations making up approximately 40% of the city's annual operating budget, supporters of raising the threshold to borrow more money from a simple 26-vote majority argued it would make the City Council more independent from the mayor.

"This ordinance is about sound policy and doing the best for our residents," said Ald. Marty Quinn (13th), the chief sponsor of the ordinance approved on Tuesday. "Utilizing a three-fifths vote as opposed to a simple majority allows more voices to be heard and counted in addressing critical issues like Chicago's health in the future."

Quinn noted the Illinois General Assembly already requires a three-fifths majority vote by both the House and Senate to pass all debt-related legislation.

However, the City Council's 32-15 vote to increase the threshold for borrowing by the city government was three votes shy of the 34 needed to survive a potential veto from the mayor.

Ald. Bill Conway (34th), an investment banker, argued the city's debt load "is really a silent killer on our budget" and the City Council needs to raise the threshold for adding any more to its existing debt.

"The risk we are facing going forward is becoming too tied up in paying the interest on the taxpayers' credit card that will crowd out our ability to fund parks, and schools, and roads, and police officers, and mental health clinics," he said.

While acknowledging that the city's massive debt load began piling up long before Johnson or current council members took office, Conway said "this fiscal mess is now our responsibility."

"Significant new debt should require broad consensus, and this ordinance which helps establish a 60% threshold helps ensure that we make these decisions carefully and collectively," he said. "Sixty percent is a good compromise to ensure that some vocal minority can't make unreasonable demands, but that new debt issuances are broadly agreed upon."

After the vote, Mayor Johnson declined to say if he would veto the ordinance, but argued raising the threshold for borrowing is not "a useful way to grow our economy."

"The last thing that people want is government to get in the way of itself," he said. "There are definitely major concerns there, you know, and I will address it accordingly."

Johnson argued that issuing bonds is a necessary tool to boost economic development and affordable housing in long neglected neighborhoods on the South and West sides.

"The issuance of bonds have been a long practice for city government to be able to respond to the dynamic needs that the people of Chicago face," he said.

Pressed on whether he would veto the ordinance, Johnson would only say "I'm going to make a decision that benefits the very people who need this type of investment."

Ald. Jason Ervin (28th), one of the mayor's closest allies and chair of the Budget Committee, has argued that if the City Council does raise the threshold for borrowing, they "would allow a minority group in the body to hold everybody hostage."

"Twenty-six votes is enough to pass any and every item that we do, and to allow a minority of members to effectively hold everybody hostage, I don't think is in the best interests not only of the city, but of how democracy works," Ervin said earlier this month when the ordinance was approved by the Finance Committee.

Alds. Daniel La Spata (1st), Chris Taliaferro (29th), and Andre Vasquez (40th) were present for Tuesday's City Council meeting, but did not vote on the ordinance raising the threshold for borrowing, leaving it unclear how they would vote if the mayor were to veto the ordinance.

Johnson must issue any veto of the ordinance before the next regular City Council meeting on Oct. 14.