The argument over the budget between the mayor and the City Council continues. In the latest salvo Mayor Johnson has proposed raising the number of employees and the tax: only companies with 500 or more would be subject to the tax which would be $33 per month per employee.
Frankly, I’m skeptical of City Hall’s numbers. The mayor has said that 175 companies would pay the new proposed tax which would raise $82 million.
Chicago used to have a head tax. The last year in which it was levied was 2014. It applied to companies with 50 or more employees and it raised only $35 million. It doesn’t feel to me like the numbers will add up.
Furthermore, it sounds to me as though the tax is likely to fall primarily on companies that would find it easy to adjust their numbers (or move) to avoid the tax. In other words JPMorgan, Accenture, and some other big consulting and financial companies. Maybe some hospital chains. The only retailer I can identify that would pay the tax would be Target—the other just don’t have enough stores or enough employees to make the cut.
At this point my bet would be that Brandon Johnson becomes the only mayor in Chicago’s history to preside over a shutdown of the city.
