CHICAGO (WGN) — Last week, a majority of alders came out against Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposal to revive the corporate head tax. This week, 10 alders are calling for a special meeting to question independent auditors who reviewed city finances.
On Monday, opponents of Johnson’s budget proposal filed paperwork to call an emergency City Council meeting next Monday focused on the Ernst & Young (EY) audit of Chicago’s budget.
“Those findings should not be sitting in a shelf, they should be discussed openly, questioned publicly and considered carefully as part of our budgeting process,” Alderwoman Samantha Nugent said.
“As you know, we’re close to $1.2 billion in the hole this year. We are looking for hundreds of millions of dollars that were proposed in efficiencies in this report,” Alderman Scott Waguespack added.
The city gave EY a $3.2 million contract in May to study the budget, identify savings and explore new sources of revenue.
While Johnson’s proposed budget outlines $80 million in cost reductions, several alders want to know why the administration did not include all of EY’s recommendations.
“What we’ve seen is that the administration has only chosen a couple of small things out of this document to move forward with, when they have the full opportunity here to take dozens of those efficiencies to create a better situation for taxpayers, and they’ve refused to do that,” Waguespack said.
A spokesperson for Johnson said alders were briefed on which recommendations were incorporated from the EY report and that the administration is willing to meet again.
“The Mayor’s Office is in the process of securing a date and time that works for Alders sometime this week or next,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Aside from suspicions over savings, the group of alders are also concerned about Johnson’s planned borrowing and progressive revenue, which includes the return of a corporate head tax.
“With the head tax, with the smart tax, with some of these other things, there’s no data behind those that they have showed us. Until we start getting that data, until we start getting those details, this is just a fluff budget that they’ve thrown out there,” Waguespack said.
“This administration was looking to do a budget vote on Nov. 20 — that’s 17 days from now. How (can) anybody in this City Council feel that we’re ready?” Alderman Matt O’Shea said. “EY is a global firm; they are one of the most respected in the business. We think it’s very important they come before us and lift up the hood.”
The mayor’s office prefers a subject-matter hearing on the EY report. But if alders insist on a full City Council meeting, they will need at least 26 members present to conduct business.
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