Brilliant. Nothing is more likely to increase economic activity than a tax that punishes businesses for hiring and employing people.
BREAKING: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson will propose a new "head tax" of $21 per employee per month. The tax would apply to all companies employing over 100 people in Chicago and rise automatically with inflation.
— Austin Berg (@Austin__Berg) October 16, 2025
Long criticized as a "job killer," Chicago's previous head tax… https://t.co/BSXRRLC7W2
Dubbed the "head tax," it is ostensibly intended to increase public safety. As if Brandon Johnson cares about public safety, but that is another issue.
BREAKING: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson will propose a new "head tax" of $21 per employee per month. The tax would apply to all companies employing over 100 people in Chicago and rise automatically with inflation.
Long criticized as a "job killer," Chicago's previous head tax reached a high of $4 per month in 40 years of existence. It was fully repealed in 2014.
Johnson is branding the head tax as a "Community Safety Surcharge." Typically, residents expect their property tax bills to fund community safety. But Chicago's property tax levy is consumed almost entirely by pension costs.
The idea is insane on its face. Most politicians want to increase the number of people employed in the city, and go to great lengths to lure big businesses to site within their city limits. The idea is straightforward: since business property taxes are already high, increasing commercial property within the city is beneficial, and the same goes for having more jobs.
Delivering on Johnson’s promise to challenge businesses to “put more skin in the game” will likely mean a revived, dramatically enhanced and rebranded version of the $4-a-month-per-employee head tax despised by business leaders as a “job killer.”
When Emanuel eliminated the head tax in 2013, it was generating roughly $20 million annually from more than 2,000 companies.
The Johnson-appointed Chicago Financial Future Task Force co-chaired by businessman Jim Reynolds and Chicago Urban League President Karen Freeman-Wilson projected that reviving the head tax at that same level would raise, at most, $25.6 million each year and perhaps less than half that amount.
Loop Capital founder Jim Reynolds and Chicago Urban League President Karen Freeman-Wilson co-chaired a mayoral task force to brainstorm ways to to erase Chicago’s $1.15 billion budget deficit. Provided by Allen Bourgeois
But Johnson is expected to go big by proposing a dramatically higher-per-employee head tax with a new name. Business leaders are already mobilizing against it while continuing their behind-the-scenes search for a mayoral candidate to challenge Johnson in 2027.
With record office vacancies and a job market stuck in the mud, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce President Jack Lavin warned that a revived, bigger head tax would “disincentivize businesses from employing people in Chicago and disincentivize businesses from coming or staying in Chicago.”
“This narrative that `business does not pay enough’ sends a negative message that Chicago is not open for business,” Lavin told the Sun-Times. “You’re making companies pay to hire people in Chicago. It’s bad for residents and jobs. We’re going to work with alders to fight this and we’ll see what happens.”
Downtown Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) said Johnson does not have the 26 votes needed to pass “a head tax at any level,” let alone a dramatically higher head tax.
Johnson, despite being one of the least popular politicians in the entire universe, is doubling down on his efforts to destroy Chicago before he inevitably gets kicked out of office. His number one priority appears to be funneling as much money as possible into the pockets of the communist Chicago Teachers Union, which he used to head, and his number two priority seems to be leaving the city a smoking ruin.
Hugo Chavez might blanch at some of Johnson's policies, although Chavez is safely in the ground, so we cannot confirm that.
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s 2026 budget proposal calls for an unprecedented withdrawal from the city’s special taxing districts, or TIFs, totaling arecord $1 billion surplus.
— Chicago Teachers Union (@CTULocal1) October 16, 2025
School board members estimate CPS would receivemore than $500 million, enough to stabilize the district for… pic.twitter.com/QgiM9ICFP2
School board members estimate CPS would receivemore than $500 million, enough to stabilize the district for the year, avoid deep cuts, and help cover a$175 million municipal pension payment. This will be the largest TIF surplus in Chicago’s history. As Trump continues to attack our students and school communities, these funds should also be used to protect the Black Student Success plan, support special education resources students are entitled to and enhance safety and supports for our school communities that have been traumatized by Trump’s invasion.
Now it’s time for the alderpersons who signed a letter encouraging CPS to pass a budget that depended on these funds to release their districts’ TIF surplus so that money can reach our schools, and for Governor Pritzker and the Democratic supermajority in Springfield to match the Mayor’s energy by fully funding Illinois schools.
To put the claim that Chicago schools are not fully funded, we should note that some schools spend $93,000 per student.
Socialists destroy everything they touch.
Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.
Help us continue to report the truth about the Schumer Shutdown. Use promo code POTUS47 to get 74% off your VIP membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member