Are there layoffs coming to the city of Chicago? Mayor Brandon Johnson floated the possibility for the first time on Wednesday, after a coalition of rival aldermen passed a budget he argues isn't truly balanced.

Late last month, the mayor's critics on the City Council stripped his proposed corporate head tax proposal from his budget, relying instead on selling some of the debt owed to the city for unpaid fines and fees, legalizing video gambling, increasing the city's plastic bag tax, and other measures.

While the mayor declined to either veto or sign the budget passed by his critics, Johnson said it leaves slimmer margins than he wanted, and on Wednesday – just seven days into the new spending plan – he warned of potential midyear layoffs to balance the budget. But his rivals said it's a bit early for what they call doomsday predictions.

"I am bracing for what could be midyear layoffs. We warned people," Johnson said.

The mayor's budget team also claimed during budget hearings that the spending plan adopted by the mayor's rivals relied on overly optimistic revenue projections, and could force potential layoffs of city workers before the end of the year.

Johnson would not go into specifics on potential layoffs, but said he's already preparing for the possibility.

"If the revenues do not match the expenses, that's what's going to trigger it. We're going to monitor it every single month as those projections come in," he said. "Based upon the projections, every month when the revenue comes in, we're going to have to make strategic decisions around how we salvage or address the shortfall.

The mayor also suggested police officers and firefighters could be among city employees facing layoffs before the end of the year.

"As far as individuals who could be laid off, we're talking about public employees, right? There could be real serious consequences to workers attached to community safety," he said.

Johnson said, without the corporate head tax he had sought in his budget, the numbers in the city's spending plan don't add up.

"We have to deal with the reality that there were alders who chose to create projections that, quite frankly, just were not tethered to reality, quite frankly," he said. "We're going to monitor it closely, and in the event that shortfall does exist, then we're going to have to go before City Council again and have another conversation about ways we can either mitigate the harm or deal with the harsh reality where people will be laid off."

Council members said it's far too soon to be talking about possible layoffs.

"We have heard doomsday scenarios in the past, particularly with respect to the budget we passed. We passed a balanced budget," said Ald. Samantha Nugent (39th).

"I can't speak for the mayor. I think that it is prematurely causing some alarm," said Ald. Nicole Lee (11th).

Not since the housing crisis of 2008 has the city laid off any of its workforce. Recent years have seen hiring freezes and early retirements, but layoffs have been rare for the city government.

Lee pointed out that one of the key revenue sources backed by the mayor in the budget is already facing a legal challenge.

A group of sportsbooks have filed a lawsuit challenging the new sports betting taxes and licensing requirements included in the city's budget. They have argued state law doesn't allow cities to impose their own taxes on top of the state's sports betting taxes, or to require local licenses to generate revenue from sports betting as Chicago is trying to do.

"I think the bigger issue that not a whole lot of people are talking about is the online sports wagering stuff that the mayor's budget had $26 million budgeted for that looks like it's going to be pre-empted," Lee said.

Regardless, Lee acknowledged layoffs aren't an impossibility.

"Is there a risk? Sure. I wouldn't sit here and lie to you and say that it's not, but I think it's very premature. I wish we would focus on the things that we need to focus on, which is getting the year started off right, and making sure that we're staying on top of everything. We plan to do that," she said.