Opinion

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready… Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed head tax on companies with more than 200 employees appeared dead after the City Council’s Finance Committee on Monday rejected the mayor’s budget. But oh, no, no, mayoral ally Ald. Jason Ervin, 28th, chair of the Budget Committee, said at the City Club on Wednesday. The mayor has a veto, and opponents of his head tax don’t have the votes to override.

As a sweeping restructuring of the public transit systems in the Chicago area neared an up-or-down vote last week, it was loaded with enough new revenue ideas to fill a progressive’s wish list. A “billionaire’s tax” on realized investment gains? Check. Expanded real estate transfer taxes? Those, too. Taxes on delivery services and concert tickets, a congestion tax and a ride-share tax? Of course. The Tribune’s editorial board reacted with dismay and called for them to scrapped.

The Chicago Financial Future Task Force, appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson early this year to give him ideas — and political cover — for closing a projected $1.15 billion budget gap, has issued its first report. It’s a smorgasbord of ideas, many of them already familiar, that comes just weeks before Johnson’s scheduled Oct. 16 budget address.

Not so long ago, there was hope that major pension reform could happen sometime this year, possibly by the end of the spring legislative session. But events are not playing […]

After city Inspector General Deborah Witzburg complained publicly last month about City Hall interference with her investigations, the city’s top lawyer countered with a rebuke. Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson-Lowry at a […]

Budget talks already were off to a late start this year on Mayor Brandon Johnson’s $17.3 billion spending plan when City Council voted last month — in a stunning 50-0 tally — […]

The term “police consent decree” may sound legalistic, but in fact, peace in our neighborhoods, racial justice, responsible policing, care for the mentally ill and even human lives hang on […]

The presidential campaign transfixed our attention for weeks. And now that the “closest contest in memory” turned into an easy victory for Donald Trump, aftershocks are in store for Chicago […]

Stacy Davis Gates’ scheming to oust Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez has marked another step in the power portfolio she has built since engineering Brandon Johnson’s election as mayor. […]

When Brandon Johnson ran for mayor two years ago, he did so on the strength of an expansive progressive agenda. His vision for equity in housing, schools, neighborhoods and downtown […]