Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has been busy the last 10 days. Last week, he signed an executive order that will crack down on lawbreakers who make the city unlivable.
No, he's not going after murderers, rapists, thieves, muggers, or carjackers. Mayor Johnson is cracking down on cigarette smoking on the "L" trains.
Johnson said last Tuesday that he has “had enough” of cigarette smokers lighting up on L trains, as he called the act “unthinkable.”
I can think of a few other things about Chicago that I find "unthinkable." Cigarette smoking on a train is pretty far down the list.
"Johnson said the effort will include placing social workers at CTA stops, starting an anti-smoking campaign on the 'detrimental effects of smoking' and tasking city agencies to find other short-term and long-term interventions to end smoking on our transit system," according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
“It’s not like the police department is not citing these individuals. It’s just it’s proven not to be enough, and so that’s why we’re taking a more holistic approach,” Johnson said.
It's inexplicable. The energy the "Worst Mayor in the United States" spent on this minor issue shows why the city is in such enormous trouble.
“We’re exploring every single option," he said. "Because, look, I’m fed up with this. The fact that we have families who are using public transportation day in and day out ... and can’t have a reasonable, sensible, comfortable ride because someone is smoking ... this is unacceptable. So there has to be a deeper level of accountability.”
It's not like Johnson doesn't have other problems needing his attention. The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) are more than $700 million short of funding just a few days before the school year starts. The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is facing a significant budget deficit of $770 million. This shortfall is largely due to the expiration of COVID-19 federal grant funding and a decline in ridership.
The city's $17 billion budget for 2026 is coming up short $1.2 billion. You've got to hand it to Johnson. When his city runs deficits, it doesn't kid around.
Johnson is in a bind of sorts. His 2023 campaign promise never to raise property taxes or fire city workers looks pretty stupid right now. Johnson still says he won't raise property taxes, but his own comptroller told the media that property taxes are "likely" going up.
The mayor is falling back on an old idea that was discarded more than a decade ago by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel: a "head tax" on corporations, charging companies $8 per employee.
"Last year major corporations such as Caterpillar, Citadel, Boeing and Tyson Foods announced relocations out of the Chicago area. Guggenheim Partners more quietly made moves to leave the city and join fellow investment firm Citadel in Miami," reports Hot Air's Beege Welborn.
Expect the exodus of major corporations to pick up if the "head tax" is passed.
Johnson contended a head tax is not a job killer. Instead, violence is the “number one issue” that corporate leaders bring up, he said Tuesday.
The mayor’s administration is also looking at a “payment in lieu of taxes” program, he added. He has in the past pointed to wealthy universities that operate in and around the city, such as the University of Chicago or Northwestern University, as potential entities the city could seek such an agreement with.
Later, Johnson said he is also eyeing a tax on digital advertisements. He worked on a similar tax in Maryland years ago, and “people have made billions of dollars from the digital industry,” he said.
You could almost imagine Johnson salivating at the prospect of those "billions of dollars" from digital ads being taxed and the money flowing into city coffers. How that tax would work is unclear, but Johnson can dream, can't he?
“There’s a reason for us to be able to tap into those individuals and entities with means so that we can continue to see the positive trend of violence going down in the city of Chicago,” he said. “It’s to all of our benefit to ensure that we’re doing everything in our power to maintain the investment that we put forward.”
Stop calling taxation "investment." It's insulting.
In addition to being known as the "Worst Mayor in the U.S.," Johnson may also be known as the "Man Who Emptied Chicago of Productive People and Companies."
The city must endure this moron for another two years.
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