Mayor Brandon Johnson on Friday unveiled a $1.15 billion deficit for 2026, an unsurprising but still formidable hurdle heading into his third budget.

Having taken a 2026 property tax hike — which faced long odds of success in a restive City Council in any event — off the table, Johnson heads into the fall budget season still talking about “progressive revenue” to close the yawning hole, but without having shared a specific plan that doesn’t resort to the layoffs he wants to avoid.

“My responsibility as executive is to present a budget that reflects the values of what the people of Chicago desire,” Johnson told reporters in a briefing Friday morning. “Without significant shifts in how we balance our budget, the services that the people of Chicago have begun to rely upon, they would cert

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