Big firms threaten to pull out of Chicago if the new mayor signs up

Businesses have already vowed to leave Chicago because of additional taxes promised by the new mayor – a forward-thinking move to address the city’s dwindling image under predecessor Lori Lightfoot.

Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson is due to be sworn in within hours, and earlier this month beat out more moderate CEO of Chicago schools, Paul Vallas, to earn the spot — something that corporate executives like CME Group Inc are already angry about.

The CEO of the country’s leading financial derivatives exchange, Terry Duffy, appeared on a podcast on Sunday expressing his distaste for additional taxes planned by the ex-union organizer, who was backed by Bernie Sanders.

Intended to dig the city out of its current financial hole, the increases target high earners and companies headquartered in the Windy City – which, as CME already proves, are likely to engage in a political battle.

Aside from the string of tax hikes, Johnson – a relative unknown in a heated mayoral race – has his hands full when he takes office on Monday, facing an influx of migrants in need of shelter and summer months that traditionally see violent crime.

Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson, who is due to be sworn in in hours, beat out more moderate Chicago school CEO Paul Vallas earlier this month to earn the spot — something corporate leaders like downtown CME Group Inc. already busy

Speaking to the Odd Lots podcast about 24 hours before the ceremony in which the former Chicago schoolteacher will succeed his similar predecessor, Duffy made it clear that his company is willing to move along with several companies such as Tyson, Caterpillar and Boeing, if Johnson does. disregard his warnings and those of others.

‘Mr. Johnson has no legal authority to impose a transaction tax on my company,” Duffy said, adding that the relatively green politician should focus on the mammoth task of fighting the city’s crime epidemic rather than pressuring businesses.

Duffy — whose company is estimated to be worth $66 billion and is responsible for both Chicago and New York’s trade exchanges — sarcastically snippy Johnson shouldn’t get too bogged down in how he’s going to think the short-term’ shoddy plans.

He added of Johnson, who had been commissioner in crime-ridden Cook County for the past four years, “He’s going to raise taxes on certain people to fit his agenda.”

That aside, Johnson already has a packed schedule ahead of him on Monday, after arriving at Michele Clark Magnet School in Austin to be inaugurated, with the ceremony starting at 10:30 a.m.

Johnson takes control as Lightfoot’s office came under fire from fed up citizens after they demanded her receive an annual wage increase of 5 percentdespite increasing criticism of her handling of violence crime in the city, as well as her failure to address the all-time high homicide rate.

Lightfoot, who currently takes home an annual salary of $209,915, made the brazen request Wednesday in an ordinance that would give the mayor, city clerk and treasurer access to a pay raise each year.

If approved, the wage increase would increase the city official’s salary to $216,210 as of May 22 next year.

Officials from both sides have criticized recent “lawlessness” in the city under Lightfoot, which reached levels not seen in decades during the pandemic and has not returned to prepandemic levels since.

The progressives notoriously cut as much as $59 million from the Chicago Police Department budget during the 2020 Defund the Police protests, but abruptly reversed that policy in August 2021, amid rising crime and mass strikes by the city ​​peace officers.

The unrest was compounded by rioting by Black Lives Matter and Defund the Police supporters — both moves Lightfoot had touted during her campaign.

At the time, the city recorded its deadliest year in decades, with 797 homicides in 2021 – the highest number since the mid-1990s. Since then, crime, especially shootings, has continued, with an overall increase of more than 43 percent from last year.

Meanwhile, the City of Chicago Police Department had also found itself increasingly at odds with Lightfoot, whose proponent of progressive policies had also brought her into the crosshairs of conservative critics across the country.

A 700-page Safety, Accountability, Fairness, and Equity-Today bill defended by Lightfoot in January led to a host of criminal justice reforms in Illinois, including an end to bail in January.

Lightfoot has also since denounced the “defund the police” movement and unveiled a new plan to – ironically – “pay back the police.”

It came as part of a plan that funneled $16.7 billion in spending provided by the federal government to the embattled police department, increasing its annual budget from $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion.

The plan relied heavily on money from Washington to lift the city out of a deficit that reached new heights under Lightfoot, and outlined future funding for new community programs that the mayor claimed will help the troubled city weather the ongoing pandemic while address the prevailing arms issues. violence and crime.

Nearly two violent crimes are still going on across the board in Chicago, especially compared to pre-pandemic levels — around the time Lightfoot was sworn in in May 2019.

The homicide rate is up 11 percent since 2019, at the same rate as during the height of the pandemic, when officials recorded a record 644 homicides.

That milestone was then surpassed when Lightfoot cut funding for the city’s police force in 2021, when there had been 676 homicides – the most seen since the mid-1990s.

Since then, the murder rate has dropped slightly, but theft, robberies and crimes in general are still on the rise – all with double-digit increases during some of the city’s worst years, crime-wise, in history.

Shootings in the Windy City, meanwhile, remain a problem as future figures like Johnson vow to get guns off the streets of Chicago.

That effort has largely failed, however, with at least 14 people shot over the weekend, three of them fatally, at a time when 50 shootings in the space of two days are not uncommon.