Posted on 10/16/2025 6:08:04 PM PDT by TigerClaws
Mayor Brandon Johnson announced a $16.6 billion budget plan for 2026 on Thursday, relying on a number of new or increased taxes on corporations to close a $1.2 billion shortfall while protecting the city from funding cuts by the Trump administration.
"We are asking large corporations and big tech companies that have made trillions of dollars to pitch in a little bit more," Johnson said.
f Johnson's budget plan is approved, social media companies could find themselves on the hook for a new tax next year. Chicago would be the first city to impose such a tax, and it's just one of a few ideas the mayor claims will balance the budget without federal funding Chicago has grown used to.
"The Protecting Chicago Budget protects Chicagoans from Trump's cuts and his attacks on our city," Johnson said.
The mayor's budget plan takes aim at a $1.2 billion budget shortfall and the Trump administration.
"Our budget proposal asks the large corporations and the ultra-wealthy to chip in a little bit more, so that working families are not burdened with higher property taxes or grocery taxes or garbage fees," Johnson said.
The mayor is proposing a first-of-its-kind "social media amusement tax" that would raise an estimated $31 million by taxing social media companies 50 cents per active user over 100,000 in Chicago. The revenue from that tax would be dedicated to funding the city's mental health clinics and mental health crisis response program.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Nutty. Absolutely nutty. How do they track this? IP addresses? Network connections? Even ones not behind VPNs don't necessarily use an IP address or server in the local area upon connection - this would go both ways - also those outside the city limits using Chicago area servers. Not to mention using VPNs which makes them be connections appearing to be non local. People just travelling through Chicago connecting temporarily? People from outside Chicago using a VPN that shows as being on Chicago?
And define user...someone who uses it daily? Once a week? Month? Year? Never, but signed for an account 10 years ago that is still open but dormant?
This seems impossible to enforce.
OPM solves all.
“Protect the Democrat Bloated Corrupt Bureaucracy Tax”
Do you know what TIF is? I did a “find” TIF search in the article, and the only one that came up was in the title.
We are asking large corporations and big tech companies that have made trillions of dollars to pitch in a little bit more,” Johnson said.
Last time I checked, there are NO high tech companies in Chicago.
They are getting pretty close to a full on collapse.
It is not legal stupid.
DRIVE THOSE COMPANIES OUT OF ILLINOIS
AMAZING HOW PORTABLE MANY FIRMS REALLY ARE WHEN THEY LOOK AT ALL THE DATA.
Excellent! Stiff the Chicago morons as much possible!
A TIF is a “Tax Increment Financing” bauble.
In practical terms? It’s a giveaway.
In legal terms? Designated TIF districts get to hand out property taxes as low interest loans to developers. That would be fine except it basically transfers tax funds more broadly - under the covers - to TIF districts.
It’s a typical progressive “nice heart-based idea” but “practical disaster”. Surprise, surprise - government is crooked and inefficient.
The *idea* behind a TIF is that such locations can attract developers, businesses, whatever by essentially providing good rate loans to develop to a location. They not only get a good financing rate, but also get a near-term property tax break.
The *problem* - as it is with government programs of this type - is the practical reality doesn’t matter. You bribe the right people, you get a good rate, and your bride buys an advantage (on taxes, if nothing else).
Maybe because of their presidential aspirations I have less obsessful intense hatred of Brandon Johnson than toward JB Pritzker and Gavin Newsom. I don’t mean it to be racial in nature. As in not taking him seriously.
But I get a real rush of adrenaline when I see even a brief clip of the first two. Intermittent rage disorder.
Thou shall not covet, stupid head....
Leftists picking the pockets of leftists.
What time is it? Jiffytime!
Cut it off to Chicago. Simple.
would be fun if the major social media companies simply cut off all users in chicago ... problem solved ...
...............................................
That is one of the reasons that 'they' are pushing Universal Digital ID, for (amongst other things) to access the internet. Brandon is just a little premature with this scheme.
But you are right: I use Cellular data for my internet access, and despite being a thousand miles away, my IP address is usually shown to be in California, even when I'm not using VPN.
Thanks for the explanation. It sounds very familiar to me as someone who has lived in NY State for 78 years. Andrew Cuomo did this here...gave tax credits, constructed buildings on tax payer money for companies he cut deals with. The problem was, that in most cases, the deals fell through. In Syracuse, a $10 million building constructed on taxpayer money was supposed to be a film archive. The developer backed out, and the building was eventually sold for $1 to the county.
Coumo did the same thing in the Buffalo area. He greenlit a billion dollars in state subsidies that benefited a solar panel company controlled by Musk’s family and which was later bought by Tesla, which Musk owns. Thousands of high-paying jobs with great benefits were promised for the solar panel company, but never materialized. The spending fell far short of its economic development promises and was directly tied to one of the most sweeping corruption scandals to ever rock a New York governor’s office. People went to prison because of it. There were other bad deals besides these two that fell through as well.
It's all a scam. What these politicians like Cuomo do is hand out tax breaks, reduced property taxes, etc., to developers in order to give kickbacks to their big political donors.
The only "large corporation" that will be left will be ComEd due to the geographic location of its service area. Of course, ComEd will raise electric rates to cover any tax increases.
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