On Wednesday morning, I presented my 2027 budget proposal to the City Council.
In the coming weeks, I will speak at length and in detail with aldermen and city leaders about my budget. But today, I want to speak to the people we work for: Chicagoans. Your faces and dreams are a constant reminder on the walls in our offices on the fifth floor. More than anyone else, this budget belongs to you. I want you to understand how that imperative guides my priorities and this process.
Following decades of mismanagement by leaders who all too often fell in line with corporate interests, we again find ourselves facing difficult financial challenges as a city. I am committed to working with the City Council, Springfield, community leaders and each of you to find real solutions to Chicago’s fiscal challenges while protecting the critical programs and services we all rely upon. No specific proposal is a dealbreaker for my administration.
More Top Picks Best Table Saws Under 400
As I’ve said before, I remain open to all ideas. I am especially sensitive to hearing from those who are closest to the problems and feel the deepest impact of past disinvestment. I am always willing to negotiate the details, but I am not willing to negotiate my values. I see it as my duty as your mayor to always stand up for working families and to center our communities. That commitment is a constant in my daily work, and especially during this budget process. As we enter what may be a contentious budget season strained by powerful elite interests, there are three things I want to promise to each and every Chicagoan, whether you live on the South Side, the West Side, the North Side or somewhere in between.
1. I will protect the services that make life easier and more affordable for you. Hardworking Chicagoans deserve to know their tax dollars are supporting programs that improve their communities and help us live our best life. Across the country, people are losing vital federal services while prices skyrocket. As Washington abandons working people, I will not let the same fate happen to Chicago.
2. I will invest in strategies proven to work and reject strategies proven to fail. Three years of investments prioritizing youth, neighbors in crisis, small business owners and Chicagoans from historically redlined neighborhoods have proved to drive down violent crime and grow our economy. I will continue investing so that today and tomorrow, every Chicagoan can live in a safe and affordable community.
3. I will listen to the people and center their needs. Leading up to this budget season, my office engaged in extensive conversation with Chicagoans about their budget priorities. Nearly 90% of the Chicagoans we spoke to told us they wanted to protect services by taxing corporations and the ultra-rich. Like all elected officials, it is my job to carry out the demands and dreams of my constituents. I will always put the desires of Chicagoans before any super political action committee or special interest.
Our budget process should be a democratic process, and because of that, my office is also counting on you to participate. This isn’t about one person or a legislative body. It’s about all of us, and it will take all of us to ensure working people are put first, especially in an era of big money and corporate interests.
In the coming weeks, there will be many opportunities for you to engage with my office and the City Council as we work to pass a budget. I am counting on you to show up, to tell us when you think we are wrong, to advocate on behalf of your communities and to fight for the things you care about.
If you have never called or emailed my office, or the office of your aldermen, I am calling on you to do so.
There is a reason that anti-democratic forces are trying to strip people of their right to vote and demoralize us so much that we disengage. It is because the collective action of people fighting for things that make life better for everyone threatens the power of a select few. It is because when working people organize and fight back, we win.
I hope you will resist pessimism and make your voice heard. Three-and-a-half years ago, as I spoke to Chicagoans for the first time as mayor-elect, I said the most radical thing we can do is to actually love people. That has not changed.
Love looks different depending on the person giving it. Sometimes, all there is to give is a listening ear or a statement of support. But as leaders, loving people, actually loving people, must come with active investments in them, their families and their communities.
It is not enough for powerbrokers to cheer at the idea of fully funded schools, reliable transit and robust mental health care, and then go silent or give excuses when they are asked to contribute to make those ideas reality. Loving people looks like passing a budget that builds communities of care and invests in them. Loving people looks like fighting for what they deserve.
Chicago, I love you.
Brandon Johnson is the mayor of Chicago.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email [email protected].