New poll shows Chicagoans strongly oppose tax increases Mayor Johnson and allies have floated

Preparing to confront Chicago’s $1.15 billion shortfall after two straight years of deficit spending, Mayor Brandon Johnson claimed this week that Chicago has a “revenue problem,” not a “spending problem.”

But most Chicagoans strongly disagree with the mayor’s assessment, according to a new poll conducted for a business-bankrolled political action committee.

It shows overwhelming opposition to some of the tax increases that Johnson has championed.

Only 16% of those surveyed support locking in annual property tax increases at the rate of inflation — as suggested this week by Johnson’s Financial Future Task Force and favored by the two most powerful members of the mayor’s City Council leadership team.

Raising the $9.50-a-month garbage fee frozen since its 2015 inception, another idea the