The city of Chicago has a massive $1.1 billion budget gap to fill for 2026, and with Mayor Brandon Johnson promising not to once again pitch a property tax hike, the mayor said Tuesday he's looking at creative ways to raise tax dollars.

As he calls on Chicago’s “billionaires and ultra rich” to “put more skin in the game,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said a per-employee head tax is “an option.”

Johnson should have been “more proactive in meeting the moment we knew was coming” when $1.9 billion in federal pandemic relief funds dried up, says Civic Federation President Joe Ferguson, adding, “This is the budget that will define the mayor’s first term.