Two key Chicago City Council committees voted Tuesday to send Johnson’s $17.3 billion spending plan for 2025 to the full City Council for a final vote. The two-step process is set to start Wednesday, with a final vote scheduled for Friday.

“The level of compliance is unsatisfying to the public,” U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer said. “I am determined that we will be seeing good progress ... in 2025. Let’s accelerate the progress.”

“A budget that would lay off workers and cut services is just, you know, one that should not be tolerated by any Chicagoan,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said.

The new plan comes after the Chicago City Council rejected Johnson’s first two proposals to raise property taxes in order to avoid draconian cuts to city services and thousands of layoffs.

“I get the noise around my administration,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “I’m doing it differently, and I know it feels a certain way, but I’m doing it better. I am. We’ll have a balanced budget that invests in people.”

Mayor Brandon Johnson said he will ask the Chicago City Council to restore 162 now-vacant positions to the Chicago Police Department charged with implementing the court order known as the consent decree. Johnson reversed course after Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and the team monitoring the city’s compliance with the consent decree warned the cuts would make it impossible for the city to comply with the requirements. 

If the mayor’s spending plan is approved by the City Council, 79 vacant positions charged with implementing the court order known as the consent decree would be eliminated, records show. Those cuts will make it impossible for the city to comply with the requirements of the court order, reform advocates said.

Board members said improved communication will be key to the agency’s survival as it faces down a projected $539 million fiscal cliff in 2026, after the CTA runs out of pandemic-era relief funding that’s been keeping its operating budget afloat in the first quarter of that year.

Democratic leaders — who kept their veto-proof majorities in both the state House and state Senate — are discussing what, if any, actions Illinois may take to “shore up” protections ahead of a second Trump presidency.

State Sen. John Curran at a press conference Tuesday called on Gov. J.B. Pritzker to pledge not to raise taxes, either on individuals or businesses.

Preckwinkle’s $9.9 billion plan calls for investments in opioid addiction remediation, community violence intervention, firming up how generative artificial intelligence can be used, adding employees at the assessor’s office to help with property valuations and adding solar panels to county properties.  

“There are no new taxes, fines or fees in this budget,” Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle told reporters in a preview of the vision she’ll outline in a Thursday morning speech. “It reflects our choices we made over the last 14 years and strong fiscal management.”

Chicago is facing a $223 million budget gap this year, and the city is projecting a nearly $1 billion shortfall in the 2025 fiscal year.

As Chicago grapples with a nearly $1 billion budget gap in the coming year, the city shouldn’t count on the state to help fill it. Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he’s “read things in the newspaper” about relief Chicago may want from the Illinois government, but at this point that’s not something his budget team is thinking about.

City officials said Tuesday they are “hyper prepared” for a renewed surge of buses paid for by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to arrive in Chicago before the Democratic National Convention kicks off in less than four weeks.

Comptroller Susana Mendoza noted the high cash balance helped Illinois generate over $558 million in interest income in FY24, a 53% increase from the previous year.