Mayor Johnson determined to avert city government shutdown as budget stalemate drags on

After another weekend of failed budget negotiations, Mayor Brandon Johnson said Monday he is open to negotiating details of his already rejected proposed corporate head tax in hopes of averting an unprecedented city government shutdown that he says “benefits nobody.”

Following a City Hall news conference in which Johnson appeared to dig in his heels, top mayoral aides began gauging City Council support for a revised head tax that raises the proposed amount of $21 a month per employee to $33, and imposes that tax on companies with 500 or more employees instead of the threshold of 100 workers that Johnson initially proposed. The revised tax with the new threshold would raise $82 million a year, the mayor’s office said.

To avert a city government shutdown, the Council must approve a budget