Members of the Chicago City Council’s Budget and Government Operations Committee kicked off weeks of budget hearings by giving Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed $17.6 billion spending plan a stony reception.

Mayor Brandon Johnson unveiled his proposed $17.6 billion 2027 spending plan Wednesday.

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s resurrection of the so-called head tax — which was soundly rejected by the Chicago City Council a year ago — would impose a $25 per month per employee tax on all firms that have more than 125 employees, according to the proposal.

Mayor Brandon Johnson said the city would refinance bonds backed by the city’s sales tax revenues that are at least 10 years old to generate between $65 million and $71 million. But that refinancing generated just $36 million, officials said.

CPD has exceeded its annual overtime budget for the 10th straight year, despite repeated promises from Mayor Brandon Johnson to reign in police overtime spending, according to a database published by Inspector General David Glockner.

A budget forecast released by Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office shows the city faces an estimated $882.4 million budget shortfall for the 2027 fiscal year.

“We have difficult and consequential decisions ahead of us as we work to address the structural financial challenges that have confronted Chicago for decades,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said.

“We cannot continue to govern by searching for loose change in the couch, or every time that there’s a budget challenge, we revert back to proclivities that have caused tremendous harm to working people in this city,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said.

Bally’s is slowing construction on parts of its $1.7 billion casino and entertainment complex in River West, following the Chicago City Council’s approval of video gambling terminals in bars and restaurants.

Mayor Brandon Johnson expressed confidence that he’ll be able to present a balanced budget in October after his Budget Director Annette Guzman abruptly resigned this week.

City officials said last week Chicago is grappling with an $89 million shortfall — revised down from the $130 million figure the mayor announced earlier this month.

An analysis is ongoing to determine when — and how much — Chicago can afford to send to its pension funds in addition to the $2.85 billion that state law requires the city to contribute this year, officials said.

“I want to say this clearly,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “There were other options. We did not need to cede to big money interests and fall back on the tired practice of balancing budgets on the backs of working people.”

The Chicago Police Department has overspent its budget five years in a row, according to Chicago’s annual financial reports.

The Chicago Financial Future Task Force published a final report Thursday that included 58 policy recommendations, such as instituting a downtown congestion fee, restructuring electricity tax rates and instituting property tax increases based on the national consumer price index.

Crafted by Mayor Brandon Johnson, the measure forces social media companies to pay a tax of 50 cents per month for every active user after the first 100,000 users, under the city’s amusement tax authority.