Taking fees from suburban visitors isn't a solution for Chicago
Just when we think Illinois' political elite couldn't think of any more ridiculous taxes to impose - e.g., the soda tax - proposals for more goofy taxes come along.
Brandon Johnson, a candidate for Chicago mayor, recently unveiled his financial plan for the city. Johnson proposes raising $800 million in new revenue by making "the suburbs, airlines and ultrarich pay their fair share" for access to Chicago.
That means punishing suburbanites for going to work by imposing a Metra "city surcharge" that would raise $40 million "from the suburbs." Johnson also wants to tax suburbanites for going to play through "new user fees for high-end commercial districts frequented by the wealthy, suburbanites, tourists and business travelers." Johnson estimates that would generate an additional $100 million.
It's ironic - or maybe not - that Johnson, an organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union, proposes to fix the city by taking money from workers who happen to live in the suburbs. Johnson's plan relies on the faulty assumption that taking more money from workers' pockets will solve Chicago's myriad problems. That is not a real solution, and it never will be.
Chicago's businesses, along with others across Illinois, face more regulations than those found in most other states. Those regulations hamper businesses' ability to hire more people. That stymies economic growth across the state. Taking more money from workers won't fix that.
The city has become a desert for retail in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the Chicago Sun-Times reported based on data from Cushman & Wakefield, retail vacancies on Michigan Avenue stood at more than 30% at the end of 2022. That vacancy rate has more than doubled since 2019, when Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot took office, and it's more than eight times worse than what it was in 2016, according to the Sun-Times. Workers' money won't solve that, either.
And Chicago continues to see its residents leave. Moving company United Van Lines conducted a survey of the Top 25 U.S. metropolitan areas that residents moved out of in 2022. Chicago came in at No. 16 with a 67% outbound rate.
Nope. Workers' money won't solve that problem, either.
No matter who wins the Chicago mayoral race, a plan built on taking money from working people, including those who access the city from the suburbs, does not provide a sustainable foundation for Chicago's future. The only true way to fix the city's, and the state's, problems is to identify the root causes of longtime structural issues and devise creative solutions for them.
For example, city leaders could work with state leaders to put a constitutional amendment for structural pension reform on the ballot. Their actions would align with popular opinion; Illinois Policy Institute polling last year showed 61% of Illinoisans would support constitutional pension reform.
Johnson's plan follows an Illinois and Chicago tradition of looking outward rather than inward to solve problems. That hasn't helped us so far.
Imagine, if only there was a candidate proposing the change the state and city need most: a change in mentality.
• Matt Paprocki is president and CEO of the Illinois Policy Institute, a free market think tank based in Chicago. The institute's new documentary, "Local 1," which exposes the rise of the nation's most powerful teachers union, was released Feb. 13.