Another billion dollars sure would come in handy for Mayor Brandon Johnson right about now.

He’d have that much in hand to cover a massive shortfall and mend fences in the City Council during another ugly budget season, if only the city were able to collect all the fines and fees that have been issued since he took office.

A Sun-Times analysis found the city is missing out on more than $1 billion in ambulance payments, utility bills, red-light camera tickets and other debts that have gone unpaid since December 2023.

Not that Johnson is the first mayor to find his Finance Department missing out on piles of cash. The city’s unpaid ledger stacks up to a whopping $8.2 billion dating back to the early 1990s. That would be enough to cover about half of Johnson’s budget proposal, if he could w

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