Paul Vallas: Two years in, Mayor Brandon Johnson's rhetoric doesn't match reality

Chicago Tribune

15-05-2025

Mayor Brandon Johnson's first two years in office can best be described as delusional. Even from a progressive perspective, there is a glaring disconnect between his rhetoric and reality.
Johnson has declared his tenure the most accomplished of any mayor in Chicago history and claims the city is now a national model for building a worker-centered, safe and affordable city. But his proudest accomplishments amount to little more than a progressive Potemkin village.
For example, he opened just three of 12 mental health facilities closed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. His reestablished Department of Environment is an office with a few staff members and no real authority or resources. Johnson's flagship initiative — a $1.25 billion bond program — is a continuation of the city practice of bonding for capital investments. His 'Green Social Housing' ordinance is a small low-interest loan program and no substitute for a serious affordable housing policy.
These checkbox initiatives, among others, are designed more for optics than substance. Despite his rhetoric, Johnson has done little to confront the city's mounting problems. Instead, he resorts to playing the race card to explain the challenges he inherited and his own failures to address them.
As Johnson completes his second year, what is his record? And what is the real state of the city?
Finances
Johnson or his administration has done nothing to address the financial storm engulfing the city, schools and public transit system — each faces historic deficits in the coming year. The city projects a budget shortfall exceeding $1 billion. The new teachers contract pushes Chicago Public Schools' deficit to more than $800 million, and the CTA faces a $600 million revenue shortfall. Meanwhile, the mayor's backing of a $1.5 billion contract with the Chicago Teachers Union makes it virtually impossible to balance either the city or CPS budget without major tax hikes.
Taxes
While the City Council blocked a property tax hike, the mayor's school board has increased property taxes each year. Voters resoundingly rejected Johnson's proposed increase in the real estate transfer tax, yet he continues to advocate for other campaign tax proposals, including a city income tax, a head tax on employers and a financial transaction tax. Chicago already leads major cities in property and sales taxes and fees, and our commercial property tax burden is among the highest in the nation.
The new $1.5 billion CTU contract almost guarantees annual property tax hikes but adds no instructional time or accountability measures. The mayor's hand-picked school board has effectively reinstated social promotion and eliminated any meaningful accountability for underperforming students, schools or teachers. The contract also undermines successful public school alternatives for low-income families such as public charter and magnet schools.
Police staffing remains 1,700 officers below pre-COVID-19 levels, in part due to the mayor's elimination of 833 positions. While homicides and shootings have declined nationally since the pandemic, Chicago has until this year ranked near the bottom of large cities in homicide reduction. Overall, violent crime remains above pre-pandemic levels and is likely underreported, given the decline in high-priority 911 responses since 2019.
The mayor's economic policy has focused on growing the public sector and expanding subsidies through public-private partnerships, rather than fostering a business-friendly environment. Johnson fulfilled a promise to eliminate the subminimum wage for tipped workers — a policy that imposes a costly, unfunded mandate on small and midsize businesses.
Johnson and his administration have no coherent affordable housing strategy. The administration has failed to leverage tools such as tax abatements, reactivation of vacant properties or creation of opportunity zones to combat disinvestment or gentrification. Johnson's promise to 'cut the tape' has amounted to little more than bureaucratic reshuffling with no substantive outcomes.
The CTA faces a huge deficit next year and needs to restore ridership to pre-COVID-19 levels to avoid deep service cuts. That requires that the CTA become significantly safer. Yet the mayor-controlled CTA continues to spend money on private, unarmed security. That money could increase the number of Chicago police officers assigned to the CTA by 500. Currently, the CTA has just over 100 police officers dedicated to transit — roughly the same as the mayor's own security detail.
Johnson has fully embraced Chicago's sanctuary city status, largely refusing to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement while offering aid to migrants, including emergency housing, medical care, legal services and de facto protection from immigration authorities. The city has spent more than $600 million on migrant services.
Johnson has failed to advance a single piece of anti-corruption legislation. He has clashed with City Council ethics chair Ald. Matt Martin and Inspector General Deborah Witzburg, who accused his administration of building 'brick walls' against oversight and transparency.
In two years, little of substance has been done to address Chicago's mounting challenges. Look to the mayor to continue refusing to take responsibility for anything — preferring to deflect, gaslight and race-bait instead.
Paul Vallas is an adviser for the Illinois Policy Institute. He ran against Johnson for Chicago mayor in 2023 and was previously budget director for the city and CEO of Chicago Public Schools.