Overview
- The mayor’s midyear budget report released Tuesday projects about a $130 million shortfall driven largely by revenues the City Council approved that have not materialized.
- The report says a planned sale of long-term city debt expected to bring roughly $89.6 million has produced nothing and advertising sales on poles and vehicles have also yielded no revenue.
- Smaller revenue items tied to an augmented-reality licensing program and legalizing video gambling together account for roughly $12.8 million in expected receipts that have not arrived, and video gambling rollout is stalled by legal and contract questions involving Bally’s.
- A bloc of alderpeople called the Budget Accountability Coalition counters that the Johnson administration slow-walked implementation of those revenue programs and bears responsibility for the gap.
- Mayor Brandon Johnson says his rejected corporate head tax—projected to raise about $100 million—would have prevented the shortfall while some progressive taxes have outperformed estimates; council budget hearings in mid-July and the city’s August 2027 forecast are the next opportunities for action.