The Windy City’s America Last politics threatens to increase the tax burden on locals with proposals that could more than double trash collection fees and charge for package deliveries.
(Video Credit: ABC 7 Chicago)
While President Donald Trump’s efforts toward mass deportation have certainly stood to spotlight the zealotry of leftists regarding open borders, the budget fight in Chicago had managed yeomen’s work all its own on that front. After having spent hundreds of millions of dollars to accommodate illegal aliens since 2022, members of the City Council were now proposing a $1.25 per package charge as a counter to another abysmal proposal from Mayor Brandon Johnson (D).
Detailed in a report from the Chicago Sun-Times, the proposal attributed to moderates and conservatives found Alderman Gilbert Villegas (D) suggesting the delivery tax applicable to commercial and residential locations as a counter to Johnson’s corporate head tax idea.
Johnson’s $21 per month per employee tax for companies with over 100 workers was quashed by the Finance Committee, as elected officials also considered an increase in the garbage collection fee for the first time since it was imposed in 2015, from $9.50 to around $20 a month.
Finance Chair Scott Waguespack (D) remarked to ABC 7 Chicago that a ready means to help address the budget issues was to simply collect money owed to the city. “Debt collection is a huge one, and the fact that they have $1 billion per year, uncollected debt over the last two years, is just outrageous,” he said of debts that included parking tickets and administrative court fees.
As the city faced the potential of a decrease in its bond rating and Johnson sought loans to cover back pay to firefighters and paramedics as well as to settle debts related to allegations of wrongdoings by police exceeding a combined $400 million, Hizzoner’s budget was said to require $449 million in loans just to cover daily operations in Chicago at an added cost of $50 million in interest to taxpayers in the city.
Meanwhile, in March, ABC 7’s I-Team had reported that since September 2022, Chicago had spent roughly $640 million on vendor contracts directed at accommodating illegal aliens.
Where it concerned the proposed delivery tax, the mayor’s office was said to have rejected the idea on the supposition that it would require state approval, a point contended by Waguespack. Instead, Johnson and Budget Committee chair Alderman Jason Ervin (D) argued that the only viable alternatives to the burdensome corporate head tax would be property tax increases or cuts to service.
“No one is signing up for service cuts,” Ervin told ABC 7. “We continue to ask people, ‘Do you want that pothole filled in 10 days or 30 days?'”
Ultimately, the council has an end of year deadline to pass a balanced budget against a projected $1.15 billion shortfall.
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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