Mayor Brandon Johnson announces plan to fill $85 million 2026 budget gap
Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday unveiled a plan to eliminate the city's $85 million budget deficit for this year.
The mayor said he will refinance about $500 million in city bonds, which will save Chicago between $65 million and $71 million. The rest of the shortfall will be covered with leftover federal COVID relief funds.
Johnson said these moves will allow him to avoid laying off workers without adding any debt.
The announcement comes as the mayor prepares for another budget fight with the City Council, which passed a 2026 budget plan that Johnson opposed.
The mayor said the City Council's ideas for balancing the budget haven't panned out. In rejecting the mayor's plan to revive a per-employee tax on large companies in Chicago, the budget approved by an opposition bloc relied on selling debt owed to the city; selling ads on city light poles, vehicles, and bridge houses; and licensing "augmented reality" ads that can be seen through smartphones, virtual reality glasses, or tablets on city property.
"Every single proposal that they put forward failed, one of which rendered zero dollars. That's a deriliction of duty," he said
A spokesperson for the council's Budget Accountability Coalition, which passed the budget plan Johnson opposed, criticized Johnson for not properly implementing the city's 2026 budget.
"Mayor Johnson and his administration have failed to execute the budget as required by law," the coalition statement said. "Instead, he has focused on finger-pointing to deflect from his failures and now is using accounting gimmicks that, in reality, won't close our structural deficit, but it does repeat more harmful fiscal practices inflicted on taxpayers by this administration."
