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Washington Post
02-06-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
Trump rides to the rescue of Chicago's flailing mayor
Two years ago, Chicago voters dumped their unpopular incumbent mayor, Lori Lightfoot, a standard-issue Democratic progressive, and replaced her with Brandon Johnson, who is, if anything, an even harder-left progressive. It was as though voters thought there was only one way to run a city, and they were ready to keep trying until they got it right. Fast-forward to this year, and Johnson's approval rating is 14 percent, according to an Illinois Policy Institute poll in January. Of the 798 registered Chicago voters polled by M3 Strategies, nearly 80 percent had an unfavorable view of Johnson, including 65 percent 'very unfavorable.' Johnson defends his record by pointing to a decline in crime that has been dramatic by some measures — this past April saw the fewest murders in that month since 1962, though violent crime has been declining nationwide. And you might figure a drop in crime should make the mayor's approval numbers rise, not fall close to the level of disdain Americans show for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin (8 percent, according to a Pew Research poll). Beyond crime, the story of Johnson's first two years is a familiar one: lousy public services with a high cost of living exacerbated by seemingly endless tax increases. The Chicago budget passed in December included $181 million in new taxes and fees. These included hiking a cloud services and digital goods tax from 9 percent to 11 percent; raising the streaming and cable TV tax from 9 percent to 10.25 percent; and increasing the parking tax to 23.25 percent. Oh, and adding a $3 ride-hailing surcharge on weekends and increasing the single-use bag tax from 7 cents to 10 cents. Johnson wanted even higher taxes. In 2024, the mayor offered a ballot referendum called Bring Chicago Home that would have raised transfer taxes on properties that sell for more than $1 million and used the revenue to fund homelessness programs, but 52 percent of voters rejected it. When Johnson was a mayoral candidate, one of the few areas where he didn't want to raise taxes was property taxes, and no wonder. The Civic Federation, a nonpartisan local research organization, noted in a report last fall that 'a taxpayer in the City of Chicago pays property taxes to 7 or 8 local governments, depending on which part of the City they live.' (Those local governments include Cook County, the city of Chicago, Chicago Public Schools, City Colleges of Chicago, Chicago Park District, Forest Preserve District of Cook County and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. Chicago residents living south of 87th Street also pay property taxes to the South Cook Mosquito Abatement District.) But despite Johnson's campaign promise, he proposed $300 million in property tax hikes in October that the City Council unanimously rejected. After the defeat, the Wall Street Journal editorial board called Johnson 'America's worst mayor.' In Johnson's defense, at the time of that editorial, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) had yet to be photographed posing for photos at a cocktail party in Ghana while the Palisades Fire was torching a good chunk of her city. This is why we need a playoff system. Living in a big city almost always costs more than in the suburbs or rural areas, but Chicago's city government seems dead-set on wringing money from residents in every way imaginable. Now, they are rationally concluding that the mayor and his administration aren't delivering. With such an abysmal approval rating and no sign of Johnson reconsidering his governing philosophy, you might think it would take a miracle to resuscitate his popularity and political future. Well, that miracle seems to be arriving in the form of the U.S. Justice Department. On May 19, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon wrote to Johnson, informing him that the Justice Department is investigating his administration to see if it 'engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination based on race.' The day before, in a speech at the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago's Woodlawn neighborhood, Johnson boasted that his deputy mayors, budget director, chief operations officer and senior advisers were Black, and added, 'When you hire our people, we always look out for everybody else. We are the most generous people on the planet.' That's a thin reed on which to base an accusation of racial discrimination in city hiring, and you're forgiven if you doubt that's the wisest use of Justice Department resources. (If prosecutors can prove that the city is turning away qualified applicants because of their race, that's a different story.) It isn't as if bringing down a Democratic mayor would boost Republican prospects in Chicago; Donald Trump received just 28 percent of the vote in Cook County in November, his worst performance in any Illinois county. If anything, the Trump administration is helping Johnson by going after him; few things could make Chicago Democrats instinctively unite like an attack on the mayor by this White House. If Johnson's numbers improve and the severely underperforming mayor tightens his grip on City Hall, that will ensure Chicago remains a prime example of progressive failure. Perhaps that would be Trump's ultimate, if unintended, revenge on Chicago voters for preferring Kamala Harris to him — getting them to sign up for four more years of Johnson's mismanagement.
The Guardian
14-04-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Trump administration sued over tariffs in US international trade court
A legal advocacy group on Monday asked the US court of international trade to block Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs on foreign trading partners, arguing that the president overstepped his authority. The lawsuit was filed by the Liberty Justice Center, a legal advocacy group, on behalf of five US businesses that import goods from countries targeted by the tariffs. 'No one person should have the power to impose taxes that have such vast global economic consequences,' Jeffrey Schwab, Liberty Justice Center's senior counsel, said in a statement. 'The Constitution gives the power to set tax rates – including tariffs – to Congress, not the President.' The Liberty Justice Center is the litigation arm of the Illinois Policy Institute, a free market thinktank. According to the group's statement, the case was filed on behalf of five owner-operated businesses who have been severely harmed by the tariffs. The businesses include a New York-based company specializing in the importation and distribution of wines and spirits, an e-commerce business specializing in the production and sale of sportfishing tackle, a company that manufactures ABS pipe in the United States using imported ABS resin from South Korea and Taiwan, a small business based in Virginia that makes educational electronic kits and musical instruments, and a Vermont-based brand of women's cycling apparel. Representatives of the White House did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. The Trump administration faces a similar lawsuit in Florida federal court, where a small business owner has asked a judge to block tariffs imposed on China.
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Exclusive: Mayor Johnson praises CPS model that produces failing grades
The Brief Mayor Johnson touts a $1.5 billion, four-year contract deal for Chicago teachers, which includes raises, smaller class sizes, and more prep time, while emphasizing investments in struggling neighborhood schools. Johnson highlights the expansion of "sustainable community schools" from 20 to 50, offering wraparound social services to meet unique school needs, despite concerns over their poor performance in key academic areas. Critics, including Illinois Policy Institute's Mailee Smith, argue that the expanded investment in these schools may drive up costs without delivering meaningful improvements, especially as they are among the lowest-performing in the district. CHICAGO - A candid Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson acknowledged the rocky road he traveled that led to a tentative contract agreement in an exclusive one-on-one interview Wednesday afternoon. He touted new investments in struggling neighborhood schools—but will they turn around their fortunes? What we know The mayor praised the $1.5 billion, four-year contract deal that includes 4-5% raises for teachers, smaller classroom sizes, and more classroom prep time. "I brought people together. We have labor peace, we have some real wins for Black history. It protects Black history, it protects LGBTQ students, it protects veteran teachers—overwhelmingly women," the mayor said in an exclusive interview with FOX 32 Chicago political editor Paris Schutz. But he singled out one other provision: an investment to expand the number of "sustainable community schools" that provide wraparound social services, from 20 to 50. "This is where schools work with the neighborhood to secure additional resources to respond to the unique needs of that particular school," Johnson said. The other side These schools have been some of the poorest performing in the district, according to a study by the libertarian-leaning Illinois Policy Institute, based on data from the State Board of Education. "On average, they have the worst reading scores, the worst math scores, the highest absenteeism rate, the lowest graduation rates, the highest drop rates, and they cost more per pupil," said Illinois Policy Institute senior director Mailee Smith. Mayor Johnson touted the South Side's Dyett High School as a sustainable community school success story, especially considering its recent boys' basketball state championship. But the IPI's study shows Dyett has one of the poorest outcomes of all CPS high schools, with only 4.5% of students reading at grade level and less than 1% at grade level in math. Additionally, 70% of students experience chronic absenteeism. Johnson says the study is wrong. "Of course, you're going to have a right-wing extreme group that wants to minimize the progress for poor children. Here's what I'm committed to doing: to make it that every child has access to a local community school," Johnson said. But Smith worries the expanded investment in sustainable community schools shows little promise of paying off. "This is adding services, adding staff, it's adding services, and that's going to drive up the costs of these schools without Chicagoans getting something in return," Smith said. What's next Chicago Teachers Union members are expected to complete their vote to ratify the new contract by next Monday. See the full interview with Mayor Johnson and Paris Schutz here.
Chicago Tribune
26-03-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Ed Bachrach and Ted Dabrowski: Do Illinois and Chicago really need to sweeten Tier 2 pension benefits?
Something remarkable happened in Chicago last month. For the first time in the memory of citizens and watchdogs, our public officials called out an egregious practice that occurs in the Windy City far too often: The City Council borrows money, spends it all immediately and then forces future generations to repay the debt decades later. Call it intergenerational inequity. Kudos to those City Council members who called out the practice and voted against Mayor Brandon Johnson's $830 million bond, which only begins to be repaid 20 years from now. However, there's a much larger fiscal challenge no one is talking about that threatens Chicago's future generations with even bigger debt burdens. It's the attempt by state lawmakers to sweeten the pension benefits of Tier 2 public employees — those hired after 2010. Proposals to increase the benefits for state pensioners range in cost from $5 billion to $80 billion, and you can bet those costs would also be thrown far into the future. When those benefit increases are eventually replicated for Chicago's seven pension plans — already $51 billion in the hole, according to the Illinois Policy Institute — intergenerational inequity in the city would only worsen. Local leaders and the public should be pushing back against burdening our children and grandchildren, just like they did during the bond debate. How will lawmakers push the costs into the future? That's where Illinois' Edgar Ramp comes in. In 1994, the General Assembly awoke to a then-unheard-of pension debt of $17 billion. In typical Illinois fashion, lawmakers cooked up a 50-year repayment plan to 'fix' the problem. It was called a ramp because little of the debt was repaid immediately, and most of it was pushed out decades into the future. A graphic of the repayment schedule looks exactly like an upward-sloping ramp. Gov. Jim Edgar signed the bill into law, giving it its name. Conveniently, all pension benefit increases passed since then — and any increases in benefit obligations found due to poor actuarial assumptions — have been pushed onto the ramp. It's how $17 billion in outstanding pension debt at the state level has now turned into a whopping $144 billion. Illinois' local plans eventually did the same, and Chicago's plans now also rely on Edgar-like ramps to stretch out payments. The question taxpayers should have asked in 1994, and that we ask now: Did the original Edgar Ramp apply to just the liabilities that had piled up at that time? Or did the law open a credit card so that every time lawmakers increased pensions, they could throw the bill on the pay-later ramp? Illinois' enormous pension debts prove it's the latter. The use of pension ramps results in the same sort of intergenerational inequity that Chicago's aldermen so rightly called out by voting against the city's $830 million borrowing plan. Chicago's seven pension funds — the four city plans, the Chicago teachers plan, as well as those for the CTA and Park District employees — are all facing significant and imminent financial distress. What will sweetening Tier 2 benefits cost those plans and, more importantly, the city's taxpayers down the road? No one has asked. And if the pensions are sweetened for current employees' past service, why not pay the cost in the current year? That's generational equity. Likewise, no one knows how damaging more pension debt and bigger annual payments will be to the city's credit ratings and yawning structural deficits. Editorial: Springfield doesn't seem to know the scope of its 'Tier 2' pension problem. How about we find out? Which raises the most basic question of all: Does the state, and Chicago, really need to sweeten Tier 2 pension benefits? Without going into detail about a matter that has already been much covered, the simple answer is that the government should do nothing. Lawmakers' principal rationale for increasing benefits is to comply with an Internal Revenue Service that rule they claim Illinois is breaking, namely that some Tier 2 pension benefits aren't meeting Social Security minimums. But Illinois lawmakers have yet to provide one shred of evidence that any individual's benefits fall afoul of the IRS rules. And our research has found no instance in which the rule has ever been enforced by the IRS. Nothing should be done until lawmakers prove there's a problem, they release a full accounting of costs and they show how those costs will be paid for. The same city aldermen who stood up to the city's bad $830 million bond should apply similar opposition to the unnecessary Tier 2 bill they and taxpayers will have to pay for. Just as they stood up to the mayor, they should stand up to Springfield. Ed Bachrach is founder of the Center for Pension Integrity and the co-author of 'The New Chicago Way: Lessons from Other Big Cities.' Ted Dabrowski is president of the conservative advocacy group Wirepoints.
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Nearly 80% of Chicagoans disapprove of Mayor Brandon Johnson, new poll finds
The Brief Just under 80% of Chicago respondents to a poll this month said they disapprove of the job Mayor Brandon Johnson is doing. The same poll also found that two-thirds of respondents said crime was the top issue facing the city. CHICAGO - Just under 80% of respondents in a new poll said they disapprove of the job that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is doing. The overwhelming disapproval comes from a survey of nearly 700 likely Chicago voters in a poll conducted between Feb. 20 and 21 by M3 Strategies. It's the latest sign of residents' frustration with Johnson who took office in May of 2023 and whose tenure has been marked by continued violent crime and tensions with aldermen over city finances and the leadership of Chicago Public Schools, among other issues. By the numbers A whopping 79.9% of respondents said they disapprove of Johnson's record. Only 6.6% of respondents held a favorable record, which gave him a net favorability rating of -73.3%. About 12% of respondents had a neutral opinion of Johnson. The findings of the M3 Strategies poll align closely with the findings of a poll conducted last month by the libertarian Illinois Policy Institute. The M3 Strategies poll also asked residents what they thought was the biggest issue facing Chicago now. About two-thirds of respondents said the top issue facing the city was crime. Here are the full findings. Respondents were able to pick their top three issues: Crime – 67% High taxes – 54% Inflation (cost of goods and services) – 41% Immigration control/border security – 24% More funding for CPS – 20% Racism – 11% Need for school choice (vouchers, charters) – 6% Reproductive freedoms – 4% LGBTQ+ rights 3% What we know Pollsters also asked respondents to disclose whom they voted for in the 2024 presidential election and how they identified in terms of political ideology. Nearly 71% of those polled said they voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, and 18% said they voted for Republican President Donald Trump. About 8.5% said they voted for another candidate. Just under 40% of respondents said they identified as "moderate" in terms of their political ideology, a little over 17% identified as either somewhat or very conservative and 43% identified as either somewhat or very liberal. About 27% of respondents identified as African American, nearly 19% identified as Hispanic or Latino, 5.5% identified as Asian American, and 43% identified as white.
